Amorphous silicon/silicon carbide superlattice avalanche photodiodes

An a-Si/SiC:H superlattice avalanche photodiode (SAPD) has been successfully fabricated on an ITO/glass substrate by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The room-temperature electron and hole impact ionization rates, alpha and beta , have been determined for the a-Si/SiC:H superlattice structure by photocurrent multiplication measurements. The ratio alpha / beta is 6.5 at a maximum electric field of 2.08*10/sup 5/ V/cm. Avalanche multiplications in the superlattice layer yields an optical gain of 184 at a reverse bias V/sub R/=20 V and an incident light power P/sub in/=5 mu W. An LED-SAPD photocouple exhibited a switching time of 4.5 mu s at a load resistance R-1.8 k Omega . >

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