Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with &gt; 1A/W responsivity

Hanchen Liu; Toni P. Pasanen; Tsun Hang Fung; Joonas Isometsä; Antti Haarahiltunen; Steven Hesse; Lutz Werner; Ville Vähänissi; Hele Savin

doi:10.1038/s41377-024-01670-4

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Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity

Original Articles

- Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity
- Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity
- LSA 2025年14卷第1期页码：110-117
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Aalto University, Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Espoo, Finland
  2.ElFys, Inc., Espoo, Finland
  3.Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Germany
- Author bio：
  
  Hele Savin (hele.savin@aalto.fi)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-024-01670-4
  中图分类号：
- 纸质出版日期：2025-01-31，
  
  网络出版日期：2025-01-01，
  
  收稿日期：2024-04-30，
  
  修回日期：2024-10-18，
  
  录用日期：2024-10-26
- Accepted：
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Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity[J]. LSA, 2025,14(1):110-117.

Liu, H. C. et al. Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 110-117 (2025).
Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity[J]. LSA, 2025,14(1):110-117. DOI： 10.1038/s41377-024-01670-4.

Liu, H. C. et al. Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 110-117 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-024-01670-4.

摘要

Abstract

Even though efficient near-infrared (NIR) detection is critical for numerous applications

state-of-the-art NIR detectors either suffer from limited capability of detecting incoming photons

i.e.

have poor spectral responsivity

or are made of expensive group Ⅲ-Ⅴ non-CMOS compatible materials. Here we present a nanoengineered PIN-photodiode made of CMOS-compatible germanium (Ge) that achieves a verified external quantum efficiency (EQE) above 90% over a wide wavelength range (1.2–1.6 µm) at zero bias voltage at room temperature. For instance

at 1.55 µm

this corresponds to a responsivity of 1.15 A/W. In addition to the excellent spectral responsivity at NIR

the performance at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths remains high (EQE exceeds even 100% below 300 nm) resulting in an exceptionally wide spectral response range. The high performance is achieved by minimizing optical losses using surface nanostructures and electrical losses using both conformal atomic-layer-deposited aluminum oxide surface passivation and dielectric induced electric field -based carrier collection instead of conventional pn-junction. The dark current density of 76 µA/cm

measured at a reverse bias of 5 V is lower than previously reported for Ge photodiodes. The presented results should have an immediate impact on the design and manufacturing of Ge photodiodes and NIR detection in general.

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Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity

Near-infrared germanium PIN-photodiodes with > 1A/W responsivity

DOI：10.1038/s41377-024-01670-4

摘要

Abstract

关键词

Keywords

references