Low-temperature performance of a large area avalanche photodiode

Abstract

A Large Area Avalanche Photodiode was studied, aiming to access its performance as light detector at low temperatures, down to -80°C. The excess noise factor, F, was measured and found to be approximately independent of the temperature. A linear dependence of F on the APD gain with a slope of 0.00239±0.00008 was observed for gains >100. The detection of low intensity light pulses, producing only a few primary electron-hole pairs in the photodiode, is reported.