InGaP (GaInP) mesa p-i-n photodiodes for X-ray photon counting spectroscopy

In this paper, for the first time an InGaP (GaInP) photon counting X-ray photodiode has been developed and shown to be suitable for photon counting X-ray spectroscopy when coupled to a low-noise charge-sensitive preamplifier. The characterisation of two randomly selected 200 µm diameter and two randomly selected 400 µm diameter In0.5Ga0.5P p+-i-n+ mesa photodiodes is reported; the i-layer of the p+-i-n+ structure was 5 µm thick. At room temperature, and under illumination from an 55Fe radioisotope X-ray source, X-ray spectra were accumulated; the best spectrometer energy resolution (FWHM) achieved at 5.9 keV was 900 eV for the 200 µm In0.5Ga0.5P diameter devices at reverse biases above 5 V. System noise analysis was also carried out and the different noise contributions were computed.