Figure 7

Progressive destruction of SLiK-1. The sample is exposed to laser power of (a) 3.5 W, (b) 5.2 W, (c) 7.7 W, and (d) 9.0 W. The photodiode stopped working as a single-photon detector after annealing at 3.5 W. From 3.6 W, the gold plating surrounding the active area of the APD begins to degrade and flow into the active area at higher powers. The package window becomes foggy from 4.9 W. The APD chip starts shifting downwards from 6 W and has moved by \(\approx30~\mu\mathrm{m}\) overall.