Emerging telecommunication and data routing applications anticipate a photonic roadmap leading to ultra-compact photonic integrated circuits. Consequently, photonic devices will soon have to meet footprint and efficiency requirements similar to their electronic counterparts calling for extreme capabilities to create, guide, modulate, and detect deep-subwavelength optical fields. For active devices such as modulators, this means fulfilling optical switching operations within light propagation distances of just a few wavelengths. Plasmonics, or metal optics, has emerged as one potential solution for integrated on-chip circuits that can combine both high operational speeds and ultra-compact architectures rivaling electronics in both speed and critical feature sizes. This article describes the current status, challenges, and future directions of the various components required to realize plasmonic integrated circuitry.

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Toward integrated plasmonic circuits

A photoelectric conversion device comprises: a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements each having a photo-sensing surface; insulation films; a plurality of light-guiding portions arranged above the insulation films, each of the plurality of light-guiding portions guiding light on the photo-sensing surface of each of the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements; and boundary portions, each of the boundary portions defines a boundary between the adjacent light-guiding portions and is formed of a material lower in refractive index than a material that forms the plurality of light-guiding portions, wherein a width of each of the boundary portions is not more than half a shortest wavelength in a wavelength range of visible light, and a height from a lower surface to an upper surface of each of the plurality of light-guiding portions is not less than double a longest wavelength in the wavelength range of visible light.

Photoelectric conversion device and imaging system

A post-treatment using N2O-plasma is applied to enhance the electrical characteristics of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide thin film transistors. Improvements in the field-effect mobility and the subthreshold swing demonstrate that interface states were passivated after N2O-plasma treatment, and a better stability under positive gate-bias stress was obtained in addition. The degradation of mobility, resulted from bias stress, reduces from 6.1% (untreated devices) to 2.6% (N2O-plasma treated devices). Nevertheless, a strange hump characteristic occurs in transfer curve during bias stress, inferring that a parasitic transistor had been caused by the gate-induced electrical field.

Influence of positive bias stress on N2O plasma improved InGaZnO thin film transistor

The major radiation of the sun can be roughly divided into three regions: ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. Detection in these three regions is important to human beings. The metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetector, with a simpler process than the pn-junction photodetector and a lower dark current than the MSM photodetector, has been developed for light detection in these three regions. Ideal UV photodetectors with high UV-to-visible rejection ratio could be demonstrated with III-V metal-insulator-semiconductor UV photodetectors. The visible-light detection and near-infrared optical communications have been implemented with Si and Ge metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetectors. For mid- and long-wavelength infrared detection, metal-insulator-semiconductor SiGe/Si quantum dot infrared photodetectors have been developed, and the detection spectrum covers atmospheric transmission windows.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/10/10/8797/pdf

Metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetectors.

p-Si/n-CdS radial heterojunction nanowires have been grown by pulse laser deposition of CdS on vertically aligned Si nanowires fabricated using a room temperature wafer-scale etching of p-type Si. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence characteristics have been studied in detail in the blue–green–red regions from these p-Si/n-CdS core–shell nanowires. The photocurrent spectra of the nanowire heterojunctions have been investigated at room temperature to study the spectral responsivity and detectivity of the core–shell nanowire diodes. The peak responsivity (1.37 A/W) and detectivity (4.39 × 1011 cm Hz1/2/W) at −1 V show the potential of the nanoscaled devices for the high efficiency photodetectors in the visible–near-infrared spectrum.

High Efficiency Si/CdS Radial Nanowire Heterojunction Photodetectors Using Etched Si Nanowire Templates

Positive bias temperature instability in p-channel polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors is investigated. The stress-induced hump in the subthreshold region is observed and is attributed to the edge transistor along the channel width direction. The electric field at the corner is higher than that at the channel due to thinner gate insulator and larger electric flux density at the corner. The current of edge transistor is independent of the channel width. The electron trapping in the gate insulator via the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling yields the positive voltage shift. As compared to the channel transistor, more trapped electrons at the edge lead to more positive voltage shift and create the hump. The hump is less significant at high temperature due to the thermal excitation of trapped elections via the Frenkel-Poole emission.

Stress-Induced Hump Effects of p-Channel Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

A Ge quantum dot photodetector has been demonstrated using a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) tunneling structure. The oxide film was grown by liquid phase deposition (LPD) at 50/spl deg/C. The photodetector with five-period Ge quantum dot has responsivity of 130, 0.16, and 0.08 mA/W at wavelengths of 820 nm, 1300 nm, and 1550 nm, respectively. The device with 20-period Ge quantum dot shows responsivity of 600 mA/W at the wavelength of 850 nm. The room temperature dark current density is as low as 0.06 mA/cm/sup 2/. The high performance of the photodetectors at 820 nm makes it feasible to integrate electrooptical devices into Si chips for short-range optical communication.

A high efficient 820 nm MOS Ge quantum dot photodetector

The metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) Ge-Si quantum-dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) are successfully demonstrated. Using oxynitride as gate dielectric instead of oxide, the operating temperature reaches 140 and 200 K for 3-10 and 2-3 /spl mu/m detection, respectively. From the photoluminescence spectrum, the quantum-dot structures are responsible for the 2-3 /spl mu/m response with high operation temperature, and the wetting layer structures may be responsible for the 3-10 /spl mu/m response. This novel MIS Ge-Si QDIP can increase the functionality of Si chip such as noncontact temperature sensing and is compatible with ultra-large scale integration technology.

Novel MIS Ge-Si quantum-dot infrared photodetectors

The stimulated emission from (110) Ge was observed in the metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) laser diode with a simple Fabry-Perot cavity by current injection at room temperature. The lasing characteristics consist of (1) sudden increase of efficiency in the light-out current-in curve, (2) the transverse electrical mode polarization, (3) the strong directivity of the far field pattern, (4) the narrow line width in the emission spectra above the threshold, and (5) the population inversion confirmed by fitting the spontaneous emission spectrum near the threshold current. The lasing wavelength is suitable for Si photonics due to the emission energy lower the Si bandgap.

Electrically pumped Ge Laser at room temperature

A metal/oxide/n-Ge structure has been utilised as a photodetector. The oxide is grown directly on the Ge substrate by liquid phase deposition. We use Al and Pt as the gate electrodes to evaluate the transport mechanism of the MOS detector. At negative gate bias, the dark current of the Al gate detector is composed of the thermal generation of minority carriers in the depletion region and the electron current tunnelling from Al to the conduction band of the n-type Ge substrate. However, for the Pt gate detector at negative gate bias, the electron tunnelling from Pt to the conduction band of the n-type Ge is greatly reduced owing to the large work function of Pt (5.65 eV).

P.-S. Kuo

Papers

Stress-Induced Hump Effects of p-Channel Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Transistors

A high efficient 820 nm MOS Ge quantum dot photodetector

Novel MIS Ge-Si quantum-dot infrared photodetectors

Electrically pumped Ge Laser at room temperature

Dark current reduction of Ge MOS photodetectors by high work function electrodes