Evaluation of different processing steps on the dark current of electron-injection detectors (Presentation Recording)

Our recently published results show a much reduced dark current and enhanced speed from our second-generation electron-Injection detectors, due to the introduction of an isolation method. However, these results have been limited to single-element detectors. A natural next step is to incorporate these new devices into a focal plane array (FPA), since we have already achieved very attractive results from an FPA based on the first-generation devices. Despite the high-performance characteristics of second generation devices, isolation introduces new processing steps and a robust procedure is required for realization of focal plane arrays (FPA) with good uniformity and yield. Here we report our systematic evaluation of the processing steps, and in particular the effect of the processing temperature, on the device dark current and uniformity. Our goal is to produce ultra-low dark current FPA based on isolated electron-injection detectors, and to approach single-photon sensitivity.