The authors present a systematic study of the effect of InAs deposition time on single photon detectors based on quantum dot resonant tunneling diodes. A dramatic improvement in the dark counts due to the electron generation-recombination events in the dots is found by reducing the size of the dots. The dark count rate can be improved to less than 6.6×1010ns1 while maintaining a single photon detection efficiency of 2%.

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In this letter forward bias is defined as a positive bias applied to the collector side with respect to the emitter.

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