Work

Performance Evaluation of an Amorphous Selenium Photodetector at High Fields for Application Integration

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Polyimide (PI) has been utilized as a hole-blocking layer (HBL) in high-resistivity photoconductors such as amorphous selenium (a-Se) and amorphous lead oxide (a-PbO). It prevents hole injection from the positively biased electrode and suppresses the dark current of the detector. To determine the performance parameters of an a-Se/PI detector for readout design and specification for different radiation detection applications, knowledge of the accurate voltage drop within the photoconductor is crucial. Here, we precisely determine the voltage drop across a-Se when interfaced with a thin layer of PI ($1 \mu \text{m}$) and characterize its temporal resolution (rise time and jitter), dynamic range, and quantum efficiency (QE) as a function of the electric field. The photoresponse of the detector is characterized using light-emitting diodes in the ultraviolet (UV, 355–400-nm wavelength) and visible (400–533-nm wavelength) regions of the light spectrum. We find the voltage drop across a-Se as 91% of the total applied voltage. This results in a QE near unity at 405 nm for corrected fields beginning at 45 V/$\mu \text{m}$. At fields of 50 V/$\mu \text{m}$, we observe rise times of 3.7 ns and jitter of 130 ps.

Source: IEEE Sensors Journal

DOI: 10.1109/jsen.2023.3273463

Authors: Kaitlin Hellier, Akyl Swaby, Jennifer Ott, Shiva Abbaszadeh

Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Semiconductor Detectors and Materials

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,345

Funders: U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Energy, Suomen Kulttuurirahasto, Defense Threat Reduction Agency