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CMOS-compatible graphene photodetector covering all optical communication bands

Nature Photonics volume 7, pages 892–896 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Optical interconnects are becoming attractive alternatives to electrical wiring in intra- and interchip communication links. Particularly, the integration with silicon complementary metal–oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has received considerable interest because of the ability of cost-effective integration of electronics and optics on a single chip1. Although silicon enables the realization of optical waveguides2 and passive components3, the integration of another, optically absorbing, material is required for photodetection. Traditionally, germanium4 or compound semiconductors5 are used for this purpose; however, their integration with silicon technology faces major challenges. Recently, graphene6 emerged as a viable alternative for optoelectronic applications7, including photodetection8. Here, we demonstrate an ultra-wideband CMOS-compatible photodetector based on graphene. We achieved a multigigahertz operation over all fibre-optic telecommunication bands beyond the wavelength range of strained germanium photodetectors9, the responsivity of which is limited by their bandgap. Our work complements the recent demonstration of a CMOS-integrated graphene electro-optical modulator10, and paves the way for carbon-based optical interconnects.

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Figure 1: Waveguide-integrated graphene photodetector.
Figure 2: Simulation results and device optimization.
Figure 3: Performance characteristics of a bilayer graphene photodetector.
Figure 4: High-speed photoresponse of a bilayer graphene photodetector.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge discussions with W. Schrenk and K. Unterrainer. We thank H. Arthaber for lending us a sampling oscilloscope and K. Unterrainer, J. Darmo and D. Dietze for providing access to their femtosecond fibre laser. This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF (START Y-539) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG (NIL-Graphene, PLATON-SiN).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Photonics, Gußhausstraße 27–29, Vienna, 1040, Austria

    Andreas Pospischil, Marco M. Furchi, Dominic Bachmann & Thomas Mueller

  2. Johannes Kepler University Linz, Institut für Halbleiter und Festkörperphysik, Altenbergerstraße 69, Linz, 4040, Austria

    Markus Humer, Romain Guider & Thomas Fromherz

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  1. Andreas Pospischil
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  6. Thomas Fromherz
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Contributions

T.M. conceived and designed the experiments. A.P. and M.H. fabricated the samples. A.P. carried out the measurements. T.M. and M.H. performed the simulations. M.M.F. and D.B. contributed to the development of the measurement set-ups. R.G. and T.F. contributed to the sample fabrication. A.P. and T.M. analysed the data. T.M. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Thomas Mueller.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Pospischil, A., Humer, M., Furchi, M. et al. CMOS-compatible graphene photodetector covering all optical communication bands. Nature Photon 7, 892–896 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2013.240

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