Supersensitive avalanche silicon drift photodetector

摘要

Physical principles of performance and main characteristics of a novelavalanche photodetector developed on the basis of MOS(metal-oxide-silicon)technology is presented. The photodetector contains a semitransparent gateelectrode and a drain contact to provide a drift of multiplicated chargecarriers along the semiconductor surface. A high gain(more than 10^4) ofphotocurrent was achived due to the local negative feedback effect realizied onthe Si-SiO_2 boundary. Special attention is paid to the possibilities ofdevelopment of a supersensitive avalanche CCD (charge coupled device) fordetection of individual photons in visible and ultraviolet spectral regions.Experimental results obtained with a two-element CCD prototype are discussed.