Acquisition, Tracking and Pointing Technologies for High Energy Laser Applications

This proposal is directed toward Focus Area 1: Low noise high sensitivity and high bandwidth detector arrays at 1µm. Amplification Technologies Inc. has invented and demonstrated a fundamentally new technology to design and fabricate high-sensitivity photodetectors. We invented an amplification method that is applied to dramatically increase the detection sensitivity in photo detectors. The Discrete Amplification Photo Detector (DAPD) is demonstrated by monolithic integration of the discrete amplification invention with an avalanche mechanism and a negative feedback mechanism, to create an extremely high-sensitivity and very low noise photodetector that is capable of detecting single photons, while having a large detection area to support real life optical systems, and while operating at room temperature. This technology is demonstrated in two material systems: silicon for sensitivity in the UV and visible wavelength range of 300nm to 900nm, and InGaAs/InP in the short wave infrared (SWIR) wavelength range of 900nm to 1700nm. With either material system, the prototype detector devices are fabricated using conventional lithography and other standard and foundry based, readily available, semiconductor wafer processing technologies