Room temperature single ion detection with Geiger mode avalanche diode detectors

We report on the fabrication and performance of a novel single ion Geiger mode avalanche (SIGMA) diode detector that senses single ions with similar to 100% detection efficiency at room temperature for 250 keV protons. The SIGMA diode detector utilizes Geiger mode operation of avalanche photodiodes, which can be sensitive to single electron- hole (e-h) pairs induced by the ion stopping. The SIGMA diode detector takes advantage of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor foundry allowing for future integration with silicon nanostructures to build novel single atom modified devices. SIGMA diode detector offers potential improvement in current integrated ion detector approaches that have noise floors in the order of 103 e- h pairs. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.