  A Large Area Avalanche Photodiode (LAAPD) was studied, aiming to access its
performance as light detector at low temperatures, down to -80 C. The excess
noise factor, F, was measured and found to be approximately independent of the
temperature. A linear dependence of F on the APD gain with a slope of 0.00239
+/- 0.00008 was observed for gains above 100. The detection of low intensity
light pulses, producing only a few primary electron-hole pairs in the
photodiode, is reported.
