Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

2002

Publisher

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)

Source Publication

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices

Source ISSN

0018-9383

Abstract

The frequency-response characteristics of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with thin multiplication layers are investigated by means of a recurrence technique that incorporates the history dependence of ionization coefficients. In addition, to characterize the autocorrelation function of the impulse response, new recurrence equations are derived and solved using a parallel computer. The mean frequency response and the gain-bandwidth product are computed and a simple model for the dependence of the gain-bandwidth product on the multiplication-layer width is set forth for GaAs, InP, Al/sub 0.2/Ga/sub 0.8/As, and In/sub 0.52/Al/sub 0.48/As APDs. It is shown that the dead-space effect leads to a reduction (up to 30%) in the bandwidth from that predicted by the conventional multiplication theory. Notably, calculation of the power-spectral density of the photocurrent reveals that the presence of dead space also results in a reduction in the fluctuations in the frequency response. This result is the spectral generalization of the reduction in the excess noise factor in thin APDs and reveals an added advantage of using thin APDs in ultrafast receivers.

Comments

Accepted version. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 49, No. 5 (2002): 770-781. DOI. © 2002 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Used with permission.

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