Dumas Arnaud, Rothman Johan, Gibert Fabien, Édouart Dimitri, Lasfargues Gilles, Cénac Claire, Mounier Florian Le, Pellegrino Jessica, Zanatta Jean-Paul, Bardoux Alain, Tinto Francesc, Flamant Pierre
Appl Opt. 2017 Sep 20;56(27):7577-7585. doi: 10.1364/AO.56.007577.
Benefiting from close to ideal amplification properties (high gain, low dark current, and low excess noise factor), HgCdTe electron initiated avalanche photodiode (e-APD) technology exhibits state of the art sensitivity, thus being especially relevant for applications relying on low light level detection, such as LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging). In addition, the tunable gap of the HgCdTe alloy enables coverage of the short wavelength infrared (SWIR) and especially the 2 μm spectral range. For these two reasons, a HgCdTe e-APD based detector is a promising candidate for future differential absorption LIDAR missions targeting greenhouse gas absorption bands in SWIR. In this study, we report on the design and evaluation of such a HgCdTe e-APD based detector. The first part focuses on detector architecture and performance. Key figures of merit are: 2.8 μm cutoff wavelength, 200 μm diameter almost circular sensitive area, 185 K operating temperature (thermo-electric cooling), 22 APD gain (at 12 V reverse bias), 360 kΩ transimpedance gain, and 60 fWHz noise equivalent power (at 12 V reverse bias). The second part presents an analysis of atmospheric LIDAR signals obtained by mounting the HgCdTe e-APD based detector on the 2 μm differential absorption LIDAR developed at the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique and dedicated to CO monitoring. Discussion emphasizes random and systematic errors in LIDAR measurements regarding breadboard detector characterization. In particular, we investigate the influence of parasitic tails in detector impulse response on short range DIAL measurements.
得益于近乎理想的放大特性（高增益、低暗电流和低过剩噪声因子），碲镉汞电子引发雪崩光电二极管（e-APD）技术展现出了先进的灵敏度，因此对于依赖低光水平检测的应用，如激光雷达（光探测与测距），尤为适用。此外，碲镉汞合金的可调带隙能够覆盖短波红外（SWIR），特别是2μm光谱范围。基于这两个原因，基于碲镉汞e-APD的探测器是未来针对SWIR中温室气体吸收带的差分吸收激光雷达任务的一个有前景的候选方案。在本研究中，我们报告了这种基于碲镉汞e-APD的探测器的设计与评估。第一部分聚焦于探测器架构和性能。关键性能指标如下：截止波长2.8μm，直径200μm的近圆形敏感区域，185K工作温度（热电冷却），22的APD增益（在12V反向偏压下），360kΩ互阻增益，以及60fW/√Hz的噪声等效功率（在12V反向偏压下）。第二部分对通过将基于碲镉汞e-APD的探测器安装在由动力气象实验室开发的用于CO监测的2μm差分吸收激光雷达上所获得的大气激光雷达信号进行了分析。讨论着重于激光雷达测量中关于实验板探测器特性的随机误差和系统误差。特别是，我们研究了探测器脉冲响应中的寄生尾对短程差分吸收激光雷达测量的影响。
