Supersensitive avalanche silicon drift photodetector

Physical principles of performance and main characteristics of a novel avalanche photodetector developed on the basis of MOS(metal-oxide-silicon) technology is presented. The photodetector contains a semitransparent gate electrode and a drain contact to provide a drift of multiplicated charge carriers along the semiconductor surface. A high gain(more than 10^4) of photocurrent was achived due to the local negative feedback effect realizied on the Si-SiO_2 boundary. Special attention is paid to the possibilities of development of a supersensitive avalanche CCD (charge coupled device) for detection of individual photons in visible and ultraviolet spectral regions. Experimental results obtained with a two-element CCD prototype are discussed.