Enhanced photo-sensitivity in a Si photodetector using a near-field assisted excitation

Silicon is an indispensable material in electric device technology. However, Si is an indirect bandgap material; therefore, its excitation efficiency, which requires phonon assistance, is low under propagating far-field light. To improve the excitation efficiency, herein we performed optical near-field excitation, which is confined in a nano-scale, where the interband transitions between different wave numbers are excited according to the uncertainty principle; thus, optical near-field can directly excite the carrier in the indirect bandgap. To evaluate the effect of optical near-field confined in a nano-scale, we fabricate the lateral Si p–n junction with Au nanoparticles as sources to generate the field confinement. We observed a 47.0% increase in the photo-sensitivity rate. In addition, by using the thin lateral p–n junction, which eliminates the far-field excitation, we confirmed a 42.3% increase in the photo-sensitivity rate.