Proposal of a broadband, polarization-insensitive and high-efficiency hot-carrier schottky photodetector integrated with a plasmonic silicon ridge waveguide

Abstract

We propose a broadband, polarization-insensitive and high-efficiency plasmonic Schottky diode for detection of sub-bandgap photons in the optical communication wavelength range through internal photoemission (IPE). The distinctive features of this design are that it has a gold film covering both the top and the sidewalls of a dielectric silicon ridge waveguide with the Schottky contact formed at the gold–silicon interface and the sidewall coverage of gold can be easily tuned by an insulating layer. An extensive physical model on IPE of hot carriers is presented in detail and is applied to calculate and examine the performance of this detector. In comparison with a diode having only the top gold contact, the polarization sensitivity of the responsivity is greatly minimized in our photodetector with gold film covering both the top and the sidewall. Much higher responsivities for both polarizations are also achieved over a broad wavelength range of 1.2–1.6 μm. Moreover, the Schottky contact is only 4 μm long, leading to a very small dark current. Our design is very promising for practical applications in high-density silicon photonic integration.