Search

Terahertz (THz) detecting technology has attracted many attentions. In this work, a novel THz detector based on a metal gratings/Si-based blocked-impurity-band (BIB) hybrid structure was designed and theoretically calculated. The highly integrated hybrid structure was found useful for modulating the response wavelength and improving the responsivity of Si-based BIB detector. The enhanced THz absorption of the hybrid device structure of metal gratings and Si-based BIB absorption layer was carefully investigated by finite difference time domain. The peak wavelength can be moved from 26.9 to 36.53 μm when metal gratings (period: 32 μm) were added on the Si-based BIB. The peak absorptivity of the hybrid detector was increased by 87.3 % with the metal gratings, compared with that of conventional Si-based BIB detector. Our results indicate that a highly integrated hybrid device structure can replace the divided band filters, and realize selective resonant enhanced absorption and tunable THz spectral response.

High-sensitivity Terahertz (THz) detection technology is widely researched for its potential applications in astronomical observation, human security check, weak signal biomacromolecule detection, etc. In this work, a novel THz detector based on metal gratings/Si-BIB hybrid structure is theoretically simulated and successfully fabricated. From FDTD simulation results, the optical field is localized in the absorbing-layer region due to the waveguide resonance effect of metal gratings with 7μm period, 5μm depth and 2/7 duty ratio. Then, the experimental results show that its spectral response is 223% higher than that of the device without metal gratings at the peak wavelength of 17μm. Our work successfully proposed a practical hybrid structure device for the biomacromolecule detection application as well as the weak signal detection in other THz applications.

Terahertz band detection technology is widely researched, for it brings chemical composition and material quality information of the object. In this work, the metal gratings/Si Blocked-impurity-band (BIB) hybrid structure is proposed. Then, we fabricate two devices with different metallic gratings and one without metallic gratings. The three different devices can response to different wavebands. According to the Fourier spectrum result, the peak wavelengths of the three devices are 15.86, 18.92 and 26 μm, respectively. Our work successfully realizes the modulation of photoelectric response wavelength and provides a novel THz detector for the application of national security, astronomical observation and life sciences.

Terahertz waves play an increasingly important role in the areas about astronomical exploration and imaging due to its unique atmosphere sensitivity and space transmission property. In order to realize high sensitive terahertz detection, we develop mesa-type silicon-based blocked-impurity-band (BIB) terahertz detectors. For further verify the influence of device structure parameters on the performance of the BIB detectors, the different doping concentration of absorption layer was fabricated. Moreover, the influence of various doping conditions on the performance of BIB terahertz detector were analyzed. Then the blackbody responsivity and response spectral performance were measured at 4K liquid helium cryogen temperatures. The results show the blackbody responsivity is proportional to the doping concentration of the absorption layer within a range. When the doping concentration increase to a certain degree, the bandgap narrowing effect will become obvious, which results to the impurity band and bottom of the conduction band degeneracy and the function of the device will be invalid. According to the measurement results, when the doping concentration of the absorption layer is 7*1016cm-3, the BIB terahertz detector we fabricated has the optimal blackbody responsivity and response spectral performance, and its peak responsivity can reach 15.4A/W. As a further step, the focal plane arrays mesa-type silicon-based BIB terahertz detectors will be designed.

Terahertz (THz) photodetector has attracted great attention from worldwide scientists for its applications in security check, biomedical treatment, and astronomical observation. In the performance evaluation of the THz photodetector, the noise level is one of the critical parameters. The Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) blocked-impurity-band (BIB) detector, which is fabricated from intrinsic GaAs-based photoconductive detectors, reveals an attractive advantage of low dark current value and high signal to noise ratio (SNR). In this work, the epitaxial GaAs BIB detector was fabricated and its noise behavior under various bias was investigated at the temperature of 3.5 K. The measured noise consists of flicker noise (1/f noise), shot noise, thermal noise and measurement noise. The effect of bias and operation temperature (TOpe) on the noise characteristics of a GaAs-based BIB detector has been studied by numerical simulation for suppressing device noise. According to the simulation, the total noise gradually increases with TOpe, and dominated by the shot noise. Our work may provide useful theoretical support to solve the critical epitaxial growth bottleneck of GaAs BIB detector and improve its performance for the applications of astronomical observation, security check, etc.

The structural model and fabrication process of the Si-based blocked-impurity-band (BIB) detector were proposed. The numerical simulation of phosphorus ion implantation and rapid thermal annealing was investigated. Various implantation conditions were analyzed to meet the requirements of good electrical contact. Moreover, the carrier activation effect of phosphorus ion implantation and rapid thermal annealing was demonstrated by Hall test. Then the relationship between blackbody responsivity and annealing temperature was analyzed. According to the measurement results, the blackbody responsivity and response wavelength range of Si-based BIB detector we fabricated can reach 2.2A/W and 5–45 μm, respectively. Our work shows that the good electrical contact can improve the blackbody responsivity. It provides an effective method to fabricate Si-based BIB detector with good performances.

A novel Terahertz (THz) detector based on metallic gratings/GaAs-based Blocked Impurity Band (BIB) hybrid structure was designed and simulated in this work. By setting the periodic metallic gratings as 100μm with 50μm width, the absorption peak of the hybrid structure detector exists at the wavelength of 249 μm, which is 4.84 times larger than the conventional BIB detector. Also, the resonate absorption peak can be modulated by changing the period of metallic gratings. Our design and simulation result provide a new scheme to fabricate the high-performance THz detector for the practical applications such as security check, biomedical treatment, and astronomical obseveration etc.