Study of a slow-light-enhanced membrane photodetector for realizing on-chip interconnection with low power consumption

Abstract

Slow-light propagation can be used to enhance light–matter interactions such as material loss and gain, which enables the realization of ultracompact photonic devices toward the ultralow-power-consumption on-chip or chip-scale optical interconnection. We designed a slow-light-enhanced waveguide-type GaInAs p–i–n photodetector (PD) by using the three-dimensional finite-difference time domain method. As a result, it was found that a cut-off frequency of 19.6 GHz with moderate output voltage, which was attributed to the high impedance characteristic, can be obtained with a 5.5-μm-long PD.