Photodetector
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Photosensors or photodetectors are sensors of light or other electromagnetic energy.[1] A photo detector converts light signals that hit the junction into voltage or current. The connection uses an illumination window with an anti-reflect coating to absorb the light photons. This results in creation of electron-hole pairs in the depletion region. Photodiodes and photo transistors are few examples of photo detectors. Solar cells are also similar to photo detectors as they absorb light and turn it into energy.
Types
Photodetectors may be classified by their mechanism for detection:[2][3][4]
- Photoemission: Photons cause electrons to transition from the conduction band of a material to free electrons in a vacuum or gas.
- Photoelectric: Photons cause electrons to transition from the valence band to the conduction band of a semiconductor.
- Photovoltaic: Photons cause a voltage to develop across a depletion region of a photovoltaic cell.
- Thermal: Photons cause electrons to transition to mid-gap states then decay back to lower bands, inducing phonon generation and thus heat.
- Polarization: Photons induce changes in polarization states of suitable materials, which may lead to change in index of refraction or other polarization effects.
- Photochemical: Photons induce a chemical change in a material.
- Weak interaction effects: photons induce secondary effects such as in photon drag[5][6] detectors or gas pressure changes in Golay cells.
Photodetectors may be used in different configurations. Single sensors may detect overall light levels. A 1-D array of photodetectors, as in a spectrophotometer, may be used to measure the distribution of light along a line. A 2-D array of photodetectors may be used to form images from the pattern of light before it.
Properties
There are a number of performance metrics, also called figures of merit, by which photodetectors are characterized and compared[2][3]
- Spectral response: The response of a photodetector as a function of photon frequency.
- Quantum efficiency: The number of carriers (electrons or holes) generated per photon.
- Responsivity: The output current divided by total light power falling upon the photodetector.
- Noise-equivalent power: The amount of light power needed to generate a signal comparable in size to the noise of the device.
- Detectivity: The square root of the detector area divided by the noise equivalent power.
- Gain: The output current of a photodetector divided by the current directly produced by the photons incident on the detectors, i.e., the built-in current gain.
- Dark current: The current flowing through a photodetector even in the absence of light.
- Response time: The time needed for a photodetector to go from 10% to 90% of final output.
- Noise spectrum: The intrinsic noise voltage or current as a function of frequency. This can be represented in the form of a noise spectral density.
Devices
Grouped by mechanism, photodetectors include the following devices:
Photoemission
- Gaseous ionization detectors are used in experimental particle physics to detect photons and particles with sufficient energy to ionize gas atoms or molecules. Electrons and ions generated by ionization cause a current flow which can be measured.
- Photomultiplier tubes containing a photocathode which emits electrons when illuminated, the electrons are then amplified by a chain of dynodes.
- Phototubes containing a photocathode which emits electrons when illuminated, such that the tube conducts a current proportional to the light intensity.
- Microchannel plate detectors are silicon-based photomultipliers.
Photoelectric
- Active-pixel sensors (APSs) are image sensors. Usually made in a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process, and also known as CMOS image sensors, APSs are commonly used in cell phone cameras, web cameras, and some DSLRs.
- Cadmium zinc telluride radiation detectors can operate in direct-conversion (or photoconductive) mode at room temperature, unlike some other materials (particularly germanium) which require liquid nitrogen cooling. Their relative advantages include high sensitivity for x-rays and gamma-rays, due to the high atomic numbers of Cd and Te, and better energy resolution than scintillator detectors.
- Charge-coupled devices (CCD), which are used to record images in astronomy, digital photography, and digital cinematography. Before the 1990s, photographic plates were most common in astronomy. The next generation of astronomical instruments, such as the Astro-E2, include cryogenic detectors.
- HgCdTe infrared detectors. Detection occurs when an infrared photon of sufficient energy kicks an electron from the valence band to the conduction band. Such an electron is collected by a suitable external readout integrated circuits (ROIC) and transformed into an electric signal.
- LEDs which are reverse-biased to act as photodiodes. See LEDs as Photodiode Light Sensors.
- Photoresistors or Light Dependent Resistors (LDR) which change resistance according to light intensity. Normally the resistance of LDRs decreases with increasing intensity of light falling on it.[7]
- Photodiodes which can operate in photovoltaic mode or photoconductive mode.[8]
- Phototransistors, which act like amplifying photodiodes.
- Quantum dot photoconductors or photodiodes, which can handle wavelengths in the visible and infrared spectral regions.
- Semiconductor detectors are employed in gamma and X-ray spectrometry and as particle detectors.[9]
- Silicon drift detectors (SDDs) are X-ray radiation detectors used in x-ray spectrometry (EDS) and electron microscopy (EDX).[10]
Photovoltaic
- Photovoltaic cells or solar cells which produce a voltage and supply an electric current when illuminated.
Thermal
- Bolometers measure the power of incident electromagnetic radiation via the heating of a material with a temperature-dependent electrical resistance. A microbolometer is a specific type of bolometer used as a detector in a thermal camera.
- Cryogenic detectors are sufficiently sensitive to measure the energy of single x-ray, visible and infrared photons.[11]
- Pyroelectric detectors detect photons through the heat they generate and the subsequent voltage generated in pyroelectric materials.
- Golay cells detect photons by the heat they generate in a gas-filled chamber, causing the gas to expand and deform a flexible membrane whose deflection is measured.
Photochemical
- Photoreceptor cells in the retina detect light through, for instance, a rhodopsin photon-induced chemical cascade.
- Chemical detectors, such as photographic plates, in which a silver halide molecule is split into an atom of metallic silver and a halogen atom. The photographic developer causes adjacent molecules to split similarly.
Polarization
- The photorefractive effect is used in holographic data storage.
- Polarization-sensitive photodetectors use optically anisotropic materials to detect photons of a desired linear polarization.[12]
Frequency range
In 2014 a technique for extending semiconductor-based photodetector's frequency range to longer, lower-energy wavelengths. Adding a light source to the device effectively "primed" the detector so that in the presence of long wavelengths, it fired on wavelengths that otherwise lacked the energy to do so.[13]
See also
References
- ^ Haugan, H. J.; Elhamri, S.; Szmulowicz, F.; Ullrich, B.; Brown, G. J.; Mitchel, W. C. (2008). "Study of residual background carriers in midinfrared InAs∕GaSb superlattices for uncooled detector operation". Applied Physics Letters. 92 (7): 071102. Bibcode:2008ApPhL..92g1102H. doi:10.1063/1.2884264.
- ^ a b Donati, S. "Photodetectors" (PDF). unipv.it. Prentice Hall. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
- ^ a b Yotter, R.A.; Wilson, D.M. (June 2003). "A review of photodetectors for sensing light-emitting reporters in biological systems". IEEE Sensors Journal. 3 (3): 288–303. doi:10.1109/JSEN.2003.814651.
- ^ Stöckmann, F. (May 1975). "Photodetectors, their performance and their limitations". Applied Physics. 7 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1007/BF00900511.
- ^ A. Grinberg, Anatoly; Luryi, Serge (1 July 1988). "Theory of the photon-drag effect in a two-dimensional electron gas". Physical Review B. 38 (1): 87–96. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.38.87.
- ^ Bishop, P.; Gibson, A.; Kimmitt, M. (October 1973). "The performance of photon-drag detectors at high laser intensities". IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics. 9 (10): 1007–1011. doi:10.1109/JQE.1973.1077407.
- ^ "Photo Detector Circuit". oscience.info.
- ^ Paschotta, Dr. Rüdiger. "Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology - photodetectors, photodiodes, phototransistors, pyroelectric photodetectors, array, powermeter, noise". www.rp-photonics.com. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
- ^ Rizzi, M.; D`Aloia, M.; Castagnolo, B. "Semiconductor Detectors and Principles of Radiation-matter Interaction". Journal of Applied Sciences. 10 (23): 3141–3155. doi:10.3923/jas.2010.3141.3155.
- ^ "Silicon Drift Detectors" (PDF). tools.thermofisher.com. Thermo Scientific.
- ^ Enss, Christian (Editor) (2005). Cryogenic Particle Detection. Springer, Topics in applied physics 99. ISBN 3-540-20113-0.
{{cite book}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ Yuan, Hongtao; Liu, Xiaoge; Afshinmanesh, Farzaneh; Li, Wei; Xu, Gang; Sun, Jie; Lian, Biao; Curto, Alberto G.; Ye, Guojun; Hikita, Yasuyuki; Shen, Zhixun; Zhang, Shou-Cheng; Chen, Xianhui; Brongersma, Mark; Hwang, Harold Y.; Cui, Yi (1 June 2015). "Polarization-sensitive broadband photodetector using a black phosphorus vertical p–n junction". Nature Nanotechnology. 10 (8): 707–713. doi:10.1038/nnano.2015.112.
- ^ Claycombe, Ann (2014-04-14). "Research finds "tunable" semiconductors will allow better detectors, solar cells". Rdmag.com. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
