Silicon: quantum dot photovoltage triodes.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34795284.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-27050-9 and PMC identifier 8602655.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Silicon is widespread in modern electronics, but its electronic bandgap prevents the detection of infrared radiation at wavelengths above 1,100 nanometers, which limits its applications in multiple fields such as night vision, health monitoring and space navigation systems. It is therefore of interest to integrate silicon with infrared-sensitive materials to broaden its detection wavelength. Here we demonstrate a photovoltage triode that can use silicon as the emitter but is also sensitive to infrared spectra owing to the heterointegrated quantum dot light absorber. The photovoltage generated at the quantum dot base region, attracting holes from silicon, leads to high responsivity (exceeding 410 A·W<sup>-1</sup> with V<sub>bias</sub> of -1.5 V), and a widely self-tunable spectral response. Our device has the maximal specific detectivity (4.73 × 10<sup>13</sup> Jones with V<sub>bias</sub> of -0.4 V) at 1,550 nm among the infrared sensitized silicon detectors, which opens a new path towards infrared and visible imaging in one chip with silicon technology compatibility.