Highly sensitive wavelength-scale amorphous hybrid plasmonic detectors

Abstract

Hybrid integration of plasmonics and Si photonics is a promising architecture\nfor global microprocessor interconnects. To this end, practical plasmonic\ndevices not only should provide athermal, broadband operation over\nwavelength-scale footprint, but also support non-intrusive integration with\nlow-loss Si waveguides as well as CMOS back-end-of-line processes. Here, we\ndemonstrate a hybrid plasmonic photodetector with a single active junction\nfabricated via back-end deposited amorphous materials coupled to Si nanowires\nwith only 1.5dB loss. Utilizing internal photoemission, our detectors measured\nsensitivity of -35dBm in a 620nm by 5{\\mu}m footprint at 7V bias. Moreover,\nresponsivity up to 0.4mA/W and dark current down to 0.2nA were obtained. The\nhigh process tolerance is demonstrated between {\\lambda}=1.2-1.8{\\mu}m and up\nto 100{\\deg}C. The results suggest the potential towards plasmonic-photonic\noptoelectronic integration on top of Si chips without costly process\nmodifications.\n