Dynamic-quenching of a single-photon avalanche photodetector using an adaptive resistive switch

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 1517
• Main Authors: Zheng, Jiyuan, Xue, Xingjun, Ji, Cheng, Yuan, Yuan, Sun, Keye, Rosenmann, Daniel, Wang, Lai, Wu, Jiamin, Campbell, Joe C., Guha, Supratik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 21.03.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/624/1107/510; 639/925/927/1007; Aluminum oxide; Avalanche diodes; Bias; Depletion; Diodes; Electrodes; Frequency dependence; Frequency response; High resistance; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laboratories; multidisciplinary; Photon avalanches; Photons; Pulse duration; Quenching; Recharging; Recovery; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silver; Transistors
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29195-7

One of the most common approaches for quenching single-photon avalanche diodes is to use a passive resistor in series with it. A drawback of this approach has been the limited recovery speed of the single-photon avalanche diodes. High resistance is needed to quench the avalanche, leading to slower recharging of the single-photon avalanche diodes depletion capacitor. We address this issue by replacing a fixed quenching resistor with a bias-dependent adaptive resistive switch. Reversible generation of metallic conduction enables switching between low and high resistance states under unipolar bias. As an example, using a Pt/Al 2 O 3 /Ag resistor with a commercial silicon single-photon avalanche diodes, we demonstrate avalanche pulse widths as small as ~30 ns, 10× smaller than a passively quenched approach, thus significantly improving the single-photon avalanche diodes frequency response. The experimental results are consistent with a model where the adaptive resistor dynamically changes its resistance during discharging and recharging the single-photon avalanche diodes. The limited recovery speed of the single-photon avalanche diodes due to the passive resistor in series strongly reduces the detector’s frequency response. Here Zheng et al., overcome this problem by using an adaptive resistive switch and reaching an avalanche pulse width as small as 30 ns.