Ultimate Sensitivity Solid State Photodetector

描述（由申请人提供）：我们提出了一种基于大禁带化合物半导体材料和新型盖革模式雪崩光电二极管结构的固态单光子雪崩探测器（SPAD）。它将能够在室温下以独特的低背景暗噪声和高量子效率探测到单个光子的光水平。它还将探测到由放射性粒子发射的闪烁物质所产生的光子。SPAD将比真空光电管和所有以前的apd具有优越的性能。SPAD可以使许多重要的生物医学仪器的成本更低，更小，更坚固。在纳米技术传感器、PET扫描、MEMS、流式细胞术和荧光显微镜等领域的基本优势将通过该项目提供的系统占地面积和成本的大幅减少而实现。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose a solid-state single-photon avalanche detector (SPAD), based on large band gap compound semiconductor materials and a new Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode structure. It will be able to detect light levels down to lone photons with uniquely low background dark noise and high quantum efficiency at room temperature. It will also detect photons showered by a scintillating material from radioactive particle emissions. The SPAD will have superior performance to vacuum phototubes and all previous APDs. The SPAD can make many important biomedical instruments orders of magnitude lower cost, smaller, and more rugged. Fundamental advantages in areas like nanotechnology sensors, PET scanning, MEMS, flow cytometry, and fluorescence microscopy will be enabled by the massive decrease in system footprint and cost offered by this project.