High-speed transparent indium-tin-oxide based resonant cavity Schottky photodiode with Si/sub 3/N/sub 4//SiO/sub 2/ top Bragg mirror

Abstract

Photodetectors demonstrating high bandwidth-efficiency (BWE) products are required for high-performance optical communication and measurement systems. For conventional photodiodes the BWE product is limited due to the bandwidth-efficiency trade-off. A resonant cavity enhanced (RCE) photodetection scheme offers the possibility to overcome this limitation. Very high BWE products are achieved using Schottky and p-i-n type RCE photodiodes, which could not be reached with conventional detector structures. Even better performances should be possible for RCE Schottky photodiodes if one can get rid of the optical losses and scattering caused by the Schottky metal, Au, which also serves as the top mirror of the resonant cavity. The transparent, low resistivity material indium-tin-oxide (ITO) is a potential alternative to thin semi-transparent Au as a Schottky-barrier contact material. We report our work on high-performance ITO-based RCE Schottky photodiodes.