Selenium photomultiplier and method for fabrication thereof

Abstract

Provided is a field shaping multi-well photomultiplier and method for fabrication thereof. The photomultiplier includes a field-shaping multi-well avalanche detector, including a lower insulator, an a-Se photoconductive layer and an upper insulator. The a-Se photoconductive layer is positioned between the lower insulator and the upper insulator. A light interaction region, an avalanche region, and a collection region are provided along a length of the photomultiplier, and the light interaction region and the collection region are positioned on opposite sides of the avalanche region.

Claims

1. A method for fabricating a photomultiplier with a field-shaping multi-well avalanche detector, the method comprising: forming a lower insulator adjacent to a substrate, wherein the lower insulator includes a first face facing the substrate; forming an upper insulator spaced apart from a second face of the lower insulator, wherein the second face is provided on a side of the lower insulator opposite to the first face; forming a plurality of grids; forming an a-Se photoconductive layer between the lower insulator and the upper insulator; providing a high voltage source on the second face of the lower insulator, in a light interaction region of the photomultiplier; and providing a collector on the second face of the lower insulator, wherein the collector is positioned in a collection region that is opposite the light interaction region, with an avalanche region positioned between the light interaction region and the collection region.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate is a glass substrate.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing photolithography to define the avalanche region along a portion of the a-Se photoconductive layer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the upper insulator is a chemical vapor deposited poly(p-xylylene) polymer configured to provides a moisture and dielectric barrier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the lower insulator is Polyimide.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming a plurality of optical windows in the light interaction region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the avalanche region is formed along a first axis.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the lower insulator, the a-Se photoconductive layer, and the upper insulator are formed along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of grids are configured to be biased to create a high-field region, to provide multi-stage avalanche gain that eliminates formation of field hot-spots inside the a Se photoconductive layer, and eliminate charge injection from high-field metal-semiconductor interfaces.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of grids are provided along the avalanche region.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each grid of the plurality of grids is provided at a predetermined distance from an adjacent another grid of the plurality of grids.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein each grid of the plurality of grids includes a first part and a second part, with the first part being opposite to the second part.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first part is formed on or in the upper insulator and the second part is formed on or in the lower insulator.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of grids form a plurality of lateral Frisch grids with a plurality of amplification stages therebetween.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The above and other aspects, features and advantages of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a profile view of a multi-well selenium photomultiplier (Se-PM) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates field intensity in the Se-PM of FIG. 1;

(4) FIG. 3 is a profile view of a multi-well Se-PM according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

(5) FIG. 4 illustrates field intensity in the Se-PM of FIG. 3;

(6) FIG. 5 is a graph showing weighting potential versus distance of the present disclosure;

(7) FIG. 6(a) is a graph of field voltage versus distance of the present disclosure; and

(8) FIG. 6(b) is a graph of gain versus distance of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(9) The following detailed description of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings, with explanation about related functions or constructions known in the art are omitted for the sake of clearness in understanding the concept, to avoid obscuring the invention with unnecessary detail.

(10) Disclosed herein is a solid-state avalanche radiation detector, and a method for constructing same, using amorphous material as the photoconductive layer. The solid-state avalanche radiation detector is based on field-shaping by localizing the high-field avalanche region between a plurality of low-field regions, improving on the devices of Sauli [7], U.S. Pat. No. 6,437,339 to Lee, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,129,688 to A. H. Goldan, et al., U.S. Pat. Publ. No. 2016/0087113 A1 of U.S. application Ser. No. 14,888,879 to A. H. Goldan, et al. and U.S. Pat. Publ. No. 2015/0171232 A1 of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/414,607 to A. H. Goldan, et al., the content of each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

(11) FIG. 1 is a profile view of a multi-well Se-PM according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates field intensity in the Se-PM of FIG. 1 during operation thereof.

(12) As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a photomultiplier device is provided with a cascaded lateral, i.e., horizontal, SWAD structure 100, a lower insulator 112, an a-Se photoconductive layer 130, and an upper insulator 114. The a-Se photoconductive layer 130 is positioned between the lower insulator 112 and the upper insulator 114. Dielectric is interchangeable with insulator. A light interaction region 140, an avalanche region 150, and a collection region 180 are provided along a length of the cascaded lateral SWAD structure 100. The light interaction region 140 and the collection region 180 are adjacent to and positioned on opposite sides of the avalanche region 150.

(13) The avalanche region 150 is formed in a longitudinal direction, i.e., along a horizontal orientation, via photolithography, rather than by a vertical film thickness, as in conventional devices. Defining the avalanche region 150 via photolithography creates a stable, reliable and repeatable detector architecture.

(14) The light interaction region 140 has an upper, i.e., front, optical window 141 and a lower, i.e., back, optical window 142, for input of first light 144 and second light 146, from above and below the cascaded lateral SWAD structure 100, respectively.

(15) A high voltage source 149 is provided at a distal end of the light interaction region 140, and a collector 182 is provided at a distal end of the collection region 180, with the high voltage source 149 and the collector 182 provided on opposite horizontal ends of the cascaded lateral SWAD structure 100.

(16) The a-Se photoconductive layer 130 is positioned between the lower insulator 112 and the upper insulator 114. The lower insulator 112 is preferably Polyimide and the upper insulator 114 is preferably a chemical vapor deposited polyp-xylylene) polymer that provides a moisture and dielectric barrier. e.g., Parylene. The lower insulator 112 is positioned adjacent to and above a substrate 110, which is preferably a glass substrate.

(17) A plurality of grids 152, 154, 156, 158, i.e., lateral Frisch grids, are provided at predetermined intervals along a horizontal length of the avalanche region 150 of the cascaded lateral SWAD structure 100, with each grid of the plurality of grids 152, 154, 156, 158 provided at one or more predetermined distances from an adjacent another grid of the plurality of grids 152, 154, 156, 158.

(18) In the multi-well Se-PM of FIG. 1, each grid of the plurality of grids has opposite first and second parts. That is, grid 152 includes a first part 152a and a second part 152b formed on the upper insulator 114 and lower insulator 112, respectively. Grid 154 includes first part 154a and a second part 154b, grid 156 includes first part 156a and a second part 156b, and grid 158 includes first part 156a and a second part 156b, which are similarly positioned. The grid electrodes can be formed in or on respective the insulator. Since the electric field is low, the grid electrodes need not be encapsulated in the insulator.

(19) A high-field region is created by biasing the electrodes of each grid of the plurality of grids 152, 154, 156, 158, thereby achieving multi-stage avalanche gain. Accordingly, a practical Se-PM is provided with insulating blocking layers that eliminate the formation of field hot-spots inside the a-Se, and also eliminates charge injection from metal to semiconductor, with all grid electrodes being encapsulated with dielectric/insulator.

(20) FIG. 2 shows four amplification stages 172, 174, 176, 178 formed between each of the plurality of grids. FIG. 2 shows voltage variation, with an absence of field hot-spots within the a-Se. Increasing a ratio of the upper and lower optical windows 141, 142 to the overall size of the avalanche region 150 reduces a fill factor due to the amplification stages, at the expense of lower time-resolution.

(21) Reducing the number of grids reduces gain. Alternatively, increasing the number of grids provides corresponding gain increases. Essentially unlimited gain can be obtained by increasing the number of grids. Since grids are added in a horizontal orientation by photolithography, the gain is provided without increasing vertical thickness.

(22) FIG. 3 is a profile view of a multi-well Se-PM according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates field intensity in the Se-PM of FIG. 3 during operation thereof.

(23) As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a cascaded lateral SWAT) structure 300 is provided with a plurality of grids 352, 354, 356, 358 positioned in interaction region 340, with a plurality of high voltage dividers 349a, 349b, 349c, 349d in the light interaction region 340. The plurality of grids 352, 354, 356, 358 are positioned only on a lower insulator 312. A collection region 380 is provided with collector 382. The other components of FIG. 3 correspond in operation to FIG. 1, and description thereof is not repeated here for conciseness.

(24) FIG. 4 shows Gaussian electric field shaping of the lateral SWAD by localizing the high-field avalanche region in gain stage 372 between grid 352 and grid 354; and in gain stage 374 between grid 354 and grid 356; in gain stage 376 between grid 356 and grid 358; thereby confining avalanche multiplication between the grid planes and eliminating charge injection from the metal electrodes. Such horizontal multi-stage field shaping achieves gain levels that are not possible with a single-stage vertical avalanche device.

(25) FIGS. 3 and 4 show a weighting potential distribution for the Se-PM, with the grids of the lateral SWAD providing an extremely strong near-field effect in an immediate vicinity of the collector. Signal is induced and sensed by the readout electronics only when avalanched holes drift pass the final grid electrode and reach the collector, as shown in FIG. 4. Accordingly, nearly ideal UTD charge sensing is provided with only a physical limit on detector's time resolution in a spatial width of the charge cloud.

(26) As shown in FIG. 4, hot spots are formed on a side of grid 352 closest to gain stage 372, on a side of grid 354 closes to gain stage 374, on both sides of grid 356, and on one side of grid 358 closest to gain stage 378.

(27) FIG. 5 is a graph showing weighting potential versus distance of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 illustrates the weighting potential distribution of hole-only charge collection during operation of the horizontal photomultiplier of the present disclosure.

(28) FIG. 6(a) is a graph of field voltage versus distance of the present disclosure of cascaded Gaussian field-shaping regions using lateral SWADs with four gain stages. FIG. 6(b) is a graph of gain versus distance of the present disclosure, showing simulated avalanche gain g.sub.av of ˜10.sup.6 [V/V] for a Se-PM with n=4.

(29) While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain aspects thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

REFERENCES

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(35) [6] A. H. Goldan, J. A. Rowlands, M. and W. Zhao, Proc. Conf. Rec. IEEE NSS/MIC N32-4, Seattle, Wash. (2014).

(36) [7] F. Sauli, GEM: A new concept for electron amplification in gas detectors. Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A, 386(2-3):531-534, 1997.