High-performance HgCdTe avalanche photodetector enabled with suppression of band-to-band tunneling effect in mid-wavelength infrared

Abstract

HgCdTe avalanche photodiodes promise various fascinating applications due to the outstanding capability of detecting weak signals or even single photon. However, the underlying transport mechanisms of diverse dark current components are still unresolved at high reverse bias, thus limiting the development of high-performance devices. Here, we establish an accurate model to demonstrate the competitive mechanism between band-to-band and avalanche dark currents in positive-intrinsic-negative structures. Based on the high consistency between the simulated and measured results, we find that both components jointly dominate overall dark current but with a larger avalanche current. This breaks the conventional cognition that band-to-band dark current contributes the majority. With the guidance, we reconstruct an optimized device and achieve gain 1876 (6153) and dark current 10⁻¹⁰ (10⁻⁹) A at bias −10 (−10.5) V, respectively. Comparisons of dark current and gain with reported single-element devices further confirm the outstanding performance of our device.