High-sensitivity visible and IR (1550nm) Si nanowire photodetectors

摘要

Vertical silicon nanowire detectors with high phototransistive gain have been demonstrated and the principles responsible for the high gain have been reported in recent publications. The emphasis of this paper is (a) the fabrication technology of silicon nanowire array detectors that can be integrated with Si VLSI and (b) the ability of sub-bandgap detection to achieve ultrawide band (from UV to IR) responsivity. We have demonstrated responsivity of greater than 100 A/W at 1550 nm for single crystal silicon nanowires to detect picowatts of IR light, the highest record ever reported for single crystal silicon detectors.