Abstract

A new approach to reduce the reverse current of Ge pin photodiodes on Si is presented, in which an i-Si layer is inserted between Ge and top Si layers to reduce the electric field in the Ge layer. Without post-growth annealing, the reverse current density is reduced to ~10 mA/cm2 at -1 V, i.e., over one order of magnitude lower than that of the reference photodiode without i-Si layer. However, the responsivity of the photodiodes is not severely compromised. This lowered-reverse-current is explained by band-pinning at the i-Si/i-Ge interface. Barrier lowering mechanism induced by E-field is also discussed. The presented "non-thermal" approach to reduce reverse current should accelerate electronics-photonics convergence by using Ge on the Si complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) platform.

© 2009 Chinese Optics Letters

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