CHARACTERIZATION AND MODELING OF METAL-RESISTANCE-SEMICONDUCTOR PHOTODETECTORS

We report an extensive characterization of Metal-Resistance-Semiconduc tor (MRS) photodetectors. Even if they look similar to Avalanche Photo diodes (APD), they have a peculiar resisitive layer placed on top of t he avalanching region, which makes the detector work as an ensemble of smaller devices, with separately stabilized operating bias. This feed back improves the uniformity of the multiplication gain, compared to c onventional APDs. We describe the experimental procedure for the param eters extraction and derive a quantitative model of the detector's ope ration.