2022/09/08 by Geun Ho Ahn, Ahn, Geun Ho, Alexander D. White +19
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics) #Photonic Crystals and Applications #Photonic and Optical Devices #Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Devices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2209.04034
openalex publication_date 2022/09/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Many attractive photonics platforms still lack integrated photodetectors due to inherent material incompatibilities and lack of process scalability, preventing their widespread deployment. Here we address the problem of scalably integrating photodetectors in a photonic platform-independent manner. Using a thermal evaporation and deposition technique developed for nanoelectronics, we show that tellurium (Te), a quasi-2D semi-conductive element, can be evaporated at low temperature directly onto photonic chips to form air-stable, high-responsivity, high-speed, ultrawide-band photodetectors. We demonstrate detection at visible, telecom, and mid-infrared wavelengths, a bandwidth of more than 40 GHz, and platform-independent scalable integration with photonic structures in silicon, silicon nitride and lithium niobate.