Characteristics of Si-based MSM photodetectors with an amorphous-crystalline heterojunction

Abstract Various amorphous silicon alloy films (i.e. i-a-Si:H, i-a-Si 0.65 Ge 0.35 :H, and i-a-Si 0.56 C 0.44 :H) were deposited on crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers to form amorphous-crystalline heterojunctions which could be used to enhance the performance of planar Si-based metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM-PD's). The photocurrents (dark currents) of the fabricated devices were slightly (significantly) lower than that of the MSM-PD without amorphous layer, and the FWHM (full-width at half-maximum) of the temporal response for MSM-PD could be reduced by employing an amorphous film. Experimentally, at a bias voltage of 20 V and for a 830 nm incident semiconductor laser power of 10 μW, the Si-based MSM-PD with a 50 × 50 μ m 2 active area and an i-a-Si 0.65 Ge 0.35 :H overlayer had a responsivity of 0.35 A W −1 , a low dark current density of 0.4 pA μm −2 , a narrower FWHM of 53 ps, and a shorter transient tail of 399 ps for its temporal response. The spectral response of a Si-based MSM-PD with an additional amorphous overlayer had a peak around 700 nm, and covered the range 500–900 nm including 830 nm.