Waveguide-integrated near-infrared detector with self-assembled metal silicide nanoparticles embedded in a silicon p-n junction

An all-silicon photodetector integrated in a silicon-on-insulator waveguide for the telecom regime is proposed. The device is based on internal photoemission from electrically floating metal silicide nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in the space charge region of a Si p-n junction. Numerical simulation indicates that the light absorption could be enhanced if localized surface plasmon resonances are excited on the metal silicide nanoparticles, thus enabling to shrink the detector's footprint to a submicron scale. A proof-of-concept detector fabricated using standard silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology exhibits a peak responsivity of ∼30 mA/W at 5-V reverse bias and a 3-dB bandwidth of ∼6 GHz. It is expected that the overall performance would be significantly improved by optimization of both the detector's configuration and the fabrication parameters.