Planar dual-cavity hot-electron photodetectors

Hot-electron photodetectors (HE PDs) are attracting increasing interests. However, the nanostructured HE PDs are fabricated via complicated and costly techniques, while the planar counterparts can hardly achieve outstanding photon absorption and hot-electron collection simultaneously. To address the incompatibility in optical and electrical domains, herein, we propose an HE PD based on planar dual cavities (i.e., DC-HE PD) one each for photon absorption and triple Schottky junctions for carrier collection. Optoelectronic simulation demonstrates that the resonant wavelength and the absorption efficiency of the device can be manipulated conveniently by tailoring the planar thickness. Compared with the single-cavity system, the absorption efficiency of the DC-HE PD with the multi-junction configuration doubled (approximate to 100%) and the responsivity tripled (approximate to 2 mA W-1). The high-performance optoelectronic responses are shown to be sustained over a wide range of incident angles. The detailed physical property, namely, the coupled-cavity nature and the detailed analysis of the hot electron dynamics are presented.