High-speed GaAs-based resonant-cavity-enhanced 1.3-μm photodetector

Abstract

High-speed photodetectors operating at 1.3 and 1.55 μm are important for long distance fiber optic based telecommunication applications. We fabricated GaAs based photodetectors operating at 1.3 μm that depend on internal photoemission as the absorption mechanism. Detectors using internal photoemission have usually very low quantum efficiency. We increased the quantum efficiency using resonant cavity enhancement effect. Resonant cavity enhancement effect also introduced wavelength selectivity which is very important for wavelength division multiplexing based communication systems. The top-illuminated Schottky photodiodes were fabricated by a microwave-compatible monolithic microfabrication process. The top metal layer serves as the top mirror of the Fabry-Perot cavity. Bottom mirror is composed of 15 pair AlAs/GaAs distributed Bragg reflector. We have used transfer matrix method to simulate the optical properties of the photodiodes. Our room temperature quantum efficiency measurement and simulation of our photodiodes at zero bias show that, we have achieved 9 fold enhancement in the quantum efficiency, with respect to a similar photodetector without a cavity. We also investigated the effect of reverse bias on quantum efficiency. Our devices are RC time constant limited with a predicted 3-dB bandwidth of 70 GHz.