Research and development of high-speed on-chip photodetectors based on A^IIIB^V heterostructures

¹ Southern Federal University, Institute of Nanotechnology, Electronics and Electronic Equipment Engineering, Department of Electronic Apparatus Design, 2 Shevchenko St., Taganrog 347922, Russia
² Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETT’, Faculty of Electronics, Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics, 5a Professor Popov St., Building 5, Saint Petersburg 197376, Russia

^* Corresponding author: ivan123tgn@yandex.ru

Abstract

This paper is aimed at the solution of the fundamental scientific and technical problem of research and development of high-performance optoelectronic devices designed for on- and inter-chip optical interconnecting in integrated circuits. Previously, we developed a laser with a double A^IIIB^V nanoheterostructure and a functionally integrated optical modulator. The device is based on the principle of controlled spatial relocation of charge carrier density peaks within quantum regions and provides the generation of optical signals with high modulation frequencies. The detection of short laser pulses generated by the lasermodulator requires a technologically compatible on-chip photodetector with subpicosecond response time. To meet the given requirements, we propose a novel design of a high-speed photodetector that employs the same relocation principle as the laser-modulator. The photodetector contains a traditional p-i-n photosensitive structure and an orthogonally oriented control heterostructure. During the back edge of a laser pulse, the control heterostructure displaces the peaks of electron and hole densities into special low-temperature-grown regions with short lifetimes and low carrier mobilities. We developed the quantum mechanical numerical model of the photodetector with controlled relocation of carrier density peaks and estimated the duration of the photocurrent back edge.