High bandwidth Ge p-i-n photodetector integrated on Si

Abstract

The authors present a germanium on silicon p-i-n photodiode for vertical light incidence. For a Ge p-i-n photodetector with a radius of 5 μm a 3 dB bandwidth of 25 GHz is measured at an incident wavelength of 1.55 μm and zero external bias. For a modest reverse bias of 2 V, the 3 dB bandwidth increases to 39 GHz. The monolithically integrated devices are grown on Si with solid source molecular beam epitaxy. The complete detector structure consisting of a highly p-doped Ge buried layer, an intrinsic absorption region, and a highly n-doped top contact layer of Ge/Si is grown in one continuous epitaxial run. A low growth temperature sequence was needed to obtain abrupt doping transitions between the highly doped regions surrounding the intrinsic layer. A theoretical consideration of the 3 dB bandwidth of the Ge detector was used to optimize the layer structure. For a photodiode with 5 μm mesa radius the maximum theoretical 3 dB frequency is 62 GHz with an intrinsic region thickness of 307 nm. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.