High-efficiency optical emission, detection, and coupling using silicon diodes

Abstract

This article reports band-edge light emission and detection using silicon diodes. A bulk crystalline silicon light-emitting diode (LED) demonstrating close to 1% power efficiency at room temperature is combined with a similar diode used as a detector, that collects the light emitted with a high quantum collection efficiency of 33%, to produce a silicon-to-silicon optically coupled system that demonstrates 0.18% coupling quantum efficiency. The silicon LED demonstrates similarly high performance at very low power levels, where it has higher power efficiency than a high efficiency GaAlAs LED.