Photodetection in silicon beyond the band edge with surface states.
Silicon is an extremely attractive material platform for integrated optics at telecommunications wavelengths, particularly for integration with CMOS circuits. Developing detectors and electrically pumped lasers at telecom wavelengths are the two main technological hurdles before silicon can become a comprehensive platform for integrated optics. We report on the generation of free carriers in unimplanted SOI ridge waveguides, which we attribute to surface state absorption. By electrically contacting the waveguides, a photodetector with a responsivity of 36 mA/W and quantum efficiency of 2.8% is demonstrated. The photoconductive effect is shown to have minimal falloff at speeds of up to 60 Mhz.
Baehr-Jones
T
T
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington, Paul Allen Center, Seattle WA 98195, USA. baehrjt@washington.edu
Hochberg
M
M
Scherer
A
A
D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008839:Microelectrodes; D010783:Photometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D014159:Transducers
D012825:Silicon