High-performance Ge p-i-n photodetector on Si substrate

Abstract

High-performance and tensile-strained germanium (Ge) p-i-n photodetector is demonstrated on Si substrate. The epitaxial Ge layers were prepared in an ultrahigh vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHV-CVD) system using low temperature Ge buffer technique. The devices were fabricated by in situ doping and using Si as passivation layer between Ge and metal, which can improve the ohmic contact and realize the high doping. The results show that the dark current of the photodetector with diameter of 24 μm is about 2.5×10⁻⁷ μA at the bias voltage of −1 V, and the optical responsivity is 0.1 A/W at wavelength of 1.55 μm. The 3 dB bandwidth (BW) of 4 GHz is obtained for the photodetector with diameter of 24 μm at reverse bias voltage of 1 V. The long diffusion time of minority carrier in n-type Ge and the large contact resistance in metal/Ge contacts both affect the performance of Ge photodetectors.