Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on silicon
Increasing the energy efficiency and reducing the footprint of on-chip photodetectors enable dense optical interconnects for emerging computational and sensing applications. While heterojunction phototransistors (HPTs) exhibit high energy efficiency and negligible excess noise factor, their gain-ban...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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AIP Publishing LLC
2025-03-01
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| Series: | APL Photonics |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0233887 |
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| author | Lining Liu Simone Bianconi Skyler Wheaton Nathaniel Coirier Farah Fahim Hooman Mohseni |
| author_facet | Lining Liu Simone Bianconi Skyler Wheaton Nathaniel Coirier Farah Fahim Hooman Mohseni |
| author_sort | Lining Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Increasing the energy efficiency and reducing the footprint of on-chip photodetectors enable dense optical interconnects for emerging computational and sensing applications. While heterojunction phototransistors (HPTs) exhibit high energy efficiency and negligible excess noise factor, their gain-bandwidth product (GBP) has been inferior to that of avalanche photodiodes at low optical powers. Here, we demonstrate that utilizing type-II energy band alignment in an Sb-based HPT results in six times smaller junction capacitance per unit area and a significantly higher GBP at low optical powers. These type-II HPTs were scaled down to 2 μm in diameter and fully integrated with photonic waveguides on silicon. Thanks to their extremely low dark current and high internal gain, these devices exhibit a GBP similar to the best avalanche devices (∼270 GHz) but with one order of magnitude better energy efficiency. Their energy consumption is about 5 fJ/bit at 3.2 Gbps, with an error rate below 10−9 at −25 dBm optical power at 1550 nm. These features suggest new opportunities for creating highly efficient and compact optical receivers based on phototransistors with type-II band alignment. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-bbbffe8b3dc14ba887fb338cb77940a8 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2378-0967 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | AIP Publishing LLC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | APL Photonics |
| spelling | doaj-art-bbbffe8b3dc14ba887fb338cb77940a82025-08-20T03:06:18ZengAIP Publishing LLCAPL Photonics2378-09672025-03-01103036106036106-910.1063/5.0233887Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on siliconLining Liu0Simone Bianconi1Skyler Wheaton2Nathaniel Coirier3Farah Fahim4Hooman Mohseni5Bio-Inspired Sensors and Optoelectronics Laboratory, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USABio-Inspired Sensors and Optoelectronics Laboratory, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USABio-Inspired Sensors and Optoelectronics Laboratory, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USABio-Inspired Sensors and Optoelectronics Laboratory, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USAASIC Development Group, Particle Physics Division, Fermi National Accelerator, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USABio-Inspired Sensors and Optoelectronics Laboratory, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USAIncreasing the energy efficiency and reducing the footprint of on-chip photodetectors enable dense optical interconnects for emerging computational and sensing applications. While heterojunction phototransistors (HPTs) exhibit high energy efficiency and negligible excess noise factor, their gain-bandwidth product (GBP) has been inferior to that of avalanche photodiodes at low optical powers. Here, we demonstrate that utilizing type-II energy band alignment in an Sb-based HPT results in six times smaller junction capacitance per unit area and a significantly higher GBP at low optical powers. These type-II HPTs were scaled down to 2 μm in diameter and fully integrated with photonic waveguides on silicon. Thanks to their extremely low dark current and high internal gain, these devices exhibit a GBP similar to the best avalanche devices (∼270 GHz) but with one order of magnitude better energy efficiency. Their energy consumption is about 5 fJ/bit at 3.2 Gbps, with an error rate below 10−9 at −25 dBm optical power at 1550 nm. These features suggest new opportunities for creating highly efficient and compact optical receivers based on phototransistors with type-II band alignment.http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0233887 |
| spellingShingle | Lining Liu Simone Bianconi Skyler Wheaton Nathaniel Coirier Farah Fahim Hooman Mohseni Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on silicon APL Photonics |
| title | Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on silicon |
| title_full | Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on silicon |
| title_fullStr | Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on silicon |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on silicon |
| title_short | Fast and efficient Sb-based type-II phototransistors integrated on silicon |
| title_sort | fast and efficient sb based type ii phototransistors integrated on silicon |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0233887 |
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