Waveguide-Integrated, Plasmonic Enhanced Graphene Photodetectors

Nano Lett. 2019 Nov 13;19(11):7632-7644. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02238. Epub 2019 Nov 4.

Abstract

We present a micrometer-scale, on-chip integrated, plasmonic enhanced graphene photodetector (GPD) for telecom wavelengths operating at zero dark current. The GPD is designed to directly generate a photovoltage by the photothermoelectric effect. It is made of chemical vapor deposited single layer graphene, and has an external responsivity ∼12.2 V/W with a 3 dB bandwidth ∼42 GHz. We utilize Au split-gates to electrostatically create a p-n-junction and simultaneously guide a surface plasmon polariton gap-mode. This increases the light-graphene interaction and optical absorption and results in an increased electronic temperature and steeper temperature gradient across the GPD channel. This paves the way to compact, on-chip integrated, power-efficient graphene based photodetectors for receivers in tele- and datacom modules.

Keywords: Graphene; integrated photonics; photodetectors; photothermoelectric effect; plasmonics.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't