Hydrogenated Nanocrystalline Silicon Near Infrared Photodiode Detector

Author

Khosropour, Alireza ; Sazonov, Andrei

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

Volume

35

Issue

11

fYear

2014

fDate

Nov. 2014

Firstpage

1106

Lastpage

1108

Abstract

This letter reports on fabrication of a low-cost high-dynamic range near infrared (NIR) photodiode detector on glass substrate using thin films of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) prepared by 13.56-MHz plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The fabricated device shows more than two orders of magnitude enhancement in external quantum efficiency compared with the conventional hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photodiode in the wavelength region of 830-950 nm. The short circuit dark current density of the nc-Si:H device is 22.3 nA/cm², which is only four times higher than that of a-Si:H photodiode. As a result, the dynamic range of operation for nc-Si:H device is at least 35 times higher than its amorphous counterpart in the wavelength region of interest, making it suitable for digital NIR imaging applications.

Keywords

current density; elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; infrared detectors; nanofabrication; nanosensors; nanostructured materials; photodetectors; photodiodes; plasma CVD; short-circuit currents; silicon; thin film sensors; NIR photodiode detector; Si:H; digital NIR imaging application; external quantum efficiency; glass substrate; hydrogenated amorphous silicon photodiode; hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon; low-cost high-dynamic range near infrared photodiode detector; magnitude enhancement order; plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition; short circuit dark current density; thin film sensor; wavelength 830 nm to 950 nm; Absorption; Dark current; Photodiodes; Photonics; Silicon; Substrates; Nanocrystalline silicon; near infrared; photodiode;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2014.2358559

Filename

6913542