No Arabic abstract
We report a high Responsivity broad band photo-detector working in the wavelength range 400 nm to 1100 nm in a horizontal array of Si microlines (line width ~1 micron) fabricated on a Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer. The array was made using a combination of plasma etching, wet etching and electron beam lithography. It forms a partially suspended (nearly free) Silicon microstructure on SOI. The array detector under full illumination of the device shows a peak Responsivity of 18 A/W at 800 nm, at a bias of 1V which is more than an order of magnitude of the Responsivity in a commercial Si detector. In a broad band of 400 nm to 1000 nm the Responsivity of the detector is in excess of 10A/W. We found that the suspension of the microlines in the array is necessary to obtain such high Responsivity. The suspension isolates the microlines from the bulk of the wafer and inhibits carrier recombination by the underlying oxide layer leading to enhanced photo-response. This has been validated through simulation. By using focused illumination of selected parts of a single microline of the array, we could isolate the contributions of the different parts of the microline to the photo-current.
Si-based photodetectors satisfy the criteria of low-cost and environmental-friendly, and can enable the development of on-chip complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible photonic systems. However, extending their room-temperature photoresponse into the mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) regime remains challenging due to the intrinsic bandgap of Si. Here, we report on a comprehensive study of a room-temperature MWIR photodetector based on Si hyperdoped with Te. The demonstrated MWIR p-n photodiode exhibits a spectral photoresponse up to 5 {mu}m and a slightly lower detector performance than the commercial devices in the wavelength range of 1.0-1.9 {mu}m. We also investigate the correlation between the background noise and the sensitivity of the Te-hyperdoped Si photodiode, where the maximum room-temperature specific detectivity is found to be 3.2 x 10^12 cmHz^{1/2}W^{-1} and 9.2 x 10^8 cmHz^{1/2}W^{-1} at 1 {mu}m and 1.55 {mu}m, respectively. This work contributes to pave the way towards establishing a Si-based broadband infrared photonic system operating at room temperature.
Development of quantum architectures during the last decade has inspired hybrid classical-quantum algorithms in physics and quantum chemistry that promise simulations of fermionic systems beyond the capability of modern classical computers, even before the era of quantum computing fully arrives. Strong research efforts have been recently made to obtain minimal depth quantum circuits which could accurately represent chemical systems. Here, we show that unprecedented methods used in quantum chemistry, designed to simulate molecules on quantum processors, can be extended to calculate properties of periodic solids. In particular, we present minimal depth circuits implementing the variational quantum eigensolver algorithm and successfully use it to compute the band structure of silicon on a quantum machine for the first time. We are convinced that the presented quantum experiments performed on cloud-based platforms will stimulate more intense studies towards scalable electronic structure computation of advanced quantum materials.
Graphene has extraordinary electro-optic properties and is therefore a promising candidate for monolithic photonic devices such as photodetectors. However, the integration of this atom-thin layer material with bulky photonic components usually results in a weak light-graphene interaction leading to large device lengths limiting electro-optic performance. In contrast, here we demonstrate a plasmonic slot graphene photodetector on silicon-on-insulator platform with high-responsivity given the 5 um-short device length. We observe that the maximum photocurrent, and hence the highest responsivity, scales inversely with the slot gap width. Using a dual-lithography step, we realize 15 nm narrow slots that show a 15-times higher responsivity per unit device-length compared to photonic graphene photodetectors. Furthermore, we reveal that the back-gated electrostatics is overshadowed by channel-doping contributions induced by the contacts of this ultra-short channel graphene photodetector. This leads to quasi charge neutrality, which explains both the previously-unseen offset between the maximum photovoltaic-based photocurrent relative to graphenes Dirac point and the observed non-ambipolar transport. Such micrometer compact and absorption-efficient photodetectors allow for short-carrier pathways in next-generation photonic components, while being an ideal testbed to study short-channel carrier physics in graphene optoelectronics.
NADH is a key biomolecule involved in many biocatalytic processes as cofactor and its quantification can be correlated to specific enzymatic activity. Many efforts have been taken to obtain clean electrochemical signals related to NADH presence and lower its redox overpotential to avoid interferences. Suppression of background and secondary signals can be achieved by including a switchable electroactive surface, for instance, by using semiconductors able to harvest light energy and drive the excited electrons only when irradiated. Here we present the combination of a n-type Si semiconductor with fibers made of carbon nanotubes as electroactive surface for NADH quantification at low potentials only upon irradiation. The resulting photoelectrode responded linearly to NADH concentrations from 50 {mu} M to 1.6 mM with high sensitivity (54 $mu$ A cm$^{-2}$ mM${-1}$). This system may serve as a biosensing platform for detection and quantification of dehydrogenases activity.
Graphene is a 2D material with appealing electronic and optoelectronic properties. It is a zero-bandgap material with valence and conduction bands meeting in a single point (Dirac point) in the momentum space. Its conductivity can be changed by shifting the Fermi level energy via an external electric field. This important property determines broadband and tunable absorption at optical frequencies. Moreover, its conductivity is a complex quantity, i.e. Graphene exhibits both electro-absorption and electro-refraction tunability, and this is an intriguing property for photonic applications. For example, it can be combined as an active material for silicon waveguides to realize efficient detectors, switches and modulators. In this paper, we review our results in the field, focusing on graphene-based optical modulators integrated on Silicon photonic platforms. Results obtained in the fabrication of single- and double-layer capacitive modulators are reported showing intensity and phase modulation, resilience of the generated signals to chromatic dispersion because of proper signal chirp and operation up to 50 Gb/s.