Solar-Blind Deep UV Avalanche Photodetectors Using Reduced Area Epitaxy

We report high gain avalanche photodetectors operating in the deep UV wavelength regime. The high gain was leveraged through reduced area epitaxy by patterning AlN on Sapphire substrate. This helps in a substantial reduction of crack formation due to overgrowth on individually isolated AlN mesas. Reproducible gain on the order of 105 was reported for multiple diodes in different areas of
$320\times 256$
focal plane array.