High-efficiency and low-jitter Silicon single-photon avalanche diodes based on nanophotonic absorption enhancement

Silicon single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) is a core device for single-photon detection in the visible and the near-infrared range, and widely used in many applications. However, due to limits of the structure design and device fabrication for current silicon SPADs, the key parameters of detection befficiency and timing jitter are often forced to compromise. Here, we propose a nanostructured silicon SPAD, which achieves high detection efficiency with excellent timing jitter simultaneously over a broad spectral range. The optical and electric simulations show significant performance enhancement compared with conventional silicon SPAD devices. This nanostructured devices can be easily fabricated and thus well suited for practical applications.