Recent advances in high speed photodetectors for ESWIR/MWIR/LWIR applications

Abstract

High speed photodetectors operating at a telecommunication band (from 1260 to 1625 nm) have been well studied with the development of an optical fiber communication system. Recent innovations of photonic systems have raised new requirements on the bandwidth of photodetectors with cutoff wavelengths from extended short wavelength infrared (eSWIR) to long wavelength infrared (LWIR). However, the frequency response performance of photodetectors in these longer wavelength bands is less studied, and the performances of the current high-speed photodetectors in these bands are still not comparable with those in the telecommunication band. In this paper, technical routes to achieve high response speed performance of photodetectors in the extended short wavelength infrared/mid wavelength infrared/long wavelength infrared (eSWIR/MWIR/LWIR) band are discussed, and the state-of-the-art performances are reviewed.