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

Jiyuan Zheng; Xingjun Xue; Cheng Ji; Yuan Yuan; Keye Sun; Daniel Rosenmann; Lai Wang; Jiamin Wu; Joe C Campbell; Supratik Guha

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29195-7

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

Nat Commun. 2022 Mar 21;13(1):1517. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29195-7.

Authors

Jiyuan Zheng^{1

2}, Xingjun Xue³, Cheng Ji⁴, Yuan Yuan³, Keye Sun³, Daniel Rosenmann⁵, Lai Wang^{6

7}, Jiamin Wu^{6

8}, Joe C Campbell³, Supratik Guha^{4

9}

Affiliations

¹ Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA. [email protected].
² Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China. [email protected].
³ Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA.
⁴ Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
⁵ Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA.
⁶ Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁷ Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁸ Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁹ Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA.

Abstract

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/Al₂O₃/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.