High-efficiency and high-speed silicon metal–semiconductor–metal photodetectors operating in the infrared

A silicon metal–semiconductor–metal photodetector with high-efficiency and high-speed in the infrared is reported. The high performance is achieved by using a Si-on-insulator substrate with a patterned nanometer-scale scattering reflector buried underneath a 170-nm-thick Si active layer. This scattering reflector causes light to be trapped inside the thin Si active layer, resulting in a fast and efficient carrier-collection by the electrodes. The impulse response of the photodetector, measured by electro-optic sampling at 780 nm wavelength, has a full width at half-maximum of 5.4 ps, corresponding to a 3-dB bandwidth of 82 GHz. At both 633 and 850 nm wavelengths, the responsivities of the photodetector with the buried backside reflector are at least an order of magnitude larger than those without the reflector.