Excess-noise and receiver sensitivity measurements of In0.53Ga0.47As/InP avalanche photodiodes

We report the results of excess-noise and normalised receiver sensitivity measurements for In0.53Ga0.47As/InP avalanche photodiodes for use in the ¿=0.95 ¿m to 1.65 ¿m spectral region. The excess-noise measurements are consistent with a hole-to-electron ionisation rate ratio in InP of ~ 0.4. The receiver sensitivity, measured at 45 Mbit/s and 10¿9 bit-error-rate, was ¿53.2 dBm at a gain of 20 assuming unity quantum efficiency for the detector. This sensitivity is the highest reported at ¿=1.3 ¿m and represents an improvement over a PIN detector using the same amplifier.