UNIT - 4

Optical Detectors
 Optical Detectors are Opto-electric devices i.e. to
convert the optical signal back into electrical
impulses.

 The light detectors are commonly made up of

semiconductor material.

 When the light strikes the light detector a current

is produced in the external circuit proportional to
the intensity of the incident light.
 Photodetectors
Types of Light Detectors

 PIN Photodiode

 Avalanche Photodiode

PIN photodiode InGaAs avalanche photodiode

 PIN Photodetector
 The device structure consists of p and n regions separated
by a very lightly n-doped intrinsic (i) region.

 In normal operation a sufficiently large reverse-bias

voltage is applied across the device so that the intrinsic
region is fully depleted of carriers. That is, the intrinsic n
and p carrier concentrations are negligibly small in
comparison with the impurity concentration in this region.

 As a photon flux Ф penetrates into a semiconductor, it will

be absorbed as it progresses through the material.

 Suppose Pin is the optical power level falling on the

photodetector at x = 0 and P(x) is the power level at a
distance x into the material.
 Then the incremental change dP(x) in the optical
power level as this photon flux passes through an
incremental distance dx in the semiconductor is given
by
dP(x) = – αs(λ) P(x) dx

where αs(λ) is the photon absorption coefficient at a

wavelength λ. Integrating this relationship gives the power
level at a distance x into the material as

P(x) = Pinexp (– αs x).....................(1)

 The width w of the p region typically is very thin so

that little radiation is absorbed there.
Fig. Pin Photodiode Circuit with an Applied Reverse Bias
 When an incident photon has an energy greater than or
equal to the bandgap energy of the semiconductor
material, the photon can give up its energy and excite
an electron from the valence band to the conduction
band.

Fig. Energy-band diagram for a pin photodiode.

 These electrons and holes are known as
photocarriers, since they are photon-generated charge
carriers that are available to produce a current flow
when a bias voltage is applied across the device.

 The number of charge carriers is controlled by the

concentration level of impurity elements that are
intentionally added to the material.

 The Photodetector is normally designed so that these

carriers are generated mainly in the depletion region
(the depleted intrinsic region) where most of the
incident light is absorbed.
 The high electric field present in the depletion region
causes the carriers to separate and be collected across
the reverse-biased junction.

 This gives rise to a current flow in an external

circuit, with one electron flowing for every carrier
pair generated. This current flow is known as the
photocurrent.

 As the charge carriers flow through the material, some

electron–hole pairs will recombine and hence
disappear.
 On the average, the charge carriers move a distance Ln
or Lp for electrons and holes, respectively.
 This distance is known as the diffusion length.

 The time it takes for an electron or hole to recombine is

known as the carrier lifetime and is represented by tn
and tp, respectively.

 The lifetimes and the diffusion lengths are related by

the expressions.
Ln = (Dntn) l/2 and Lp = (Dptp) l/2

 Where Dn and Dp are the electron and hole diffusion

coefficients (or constants), respectively.
 αs depends strongly on the wavelength. Thus a
particular semiconductor material can be used only
over a limited wavelength range. The upper
wavelength cutoff λc is determined by the bandgap
energy Eg of the material.

………………….(2)

 The cutoff wavelength is about 1.06 for Si and 1.6 for

Ge. For longer wavelengths, the photon energy is not
sufficient to excite an electron from the valence to the
conduction band.
Fig. Optical absorption coefficient as a function of wavelength
 At the lower-wavelength end, the photoresponse cuts
off as a result of the very large values of αs at the
shorter wavelengths.

 In this case, the photons are absorbed very close to the

photodetector surface, where the recombination time of
the generated electron–hole pairs is very short. The
generated carriers thus recombine before they can be
collected by the photodetector circuitry.

 If the depletion region has a width w, then, the total

power absorbed in the distance w is
….(3)
 When considering reflectivity Rf at the entrance face of
the photodiode, then the primary photocurrent Ip
resulting from the power absorption is

………..4

where
Pin is the optical power incident on the photodetector,
q is the electron charge, and
hv is the photon energy.
Quantum efficiency (ƞ):

 The quantum efficiency ƞ is the number of the electron–

hole carrier pairs generated per incident–absorbed
photon of energy hv and is given by

Responsivity (R):
Fig. Comparison of the responsivity and quantum efficiency as a function of wavelength
for pin photodiodes.
Avalanche Photodiodes

 Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) internally multiply the

primary signal photocurrent before it enters the input
circuitry.

 This increases receiver sensitivity, since the

photocurrent is multiplied before encountering the
thermal noise associated with the receiver circuit.

 In order for carrier multiplication to take place, the

photogenerated carriers must traverse a region where a
very high electric field is present.
 In this high-field region, a photogenerated electron or
hole can gain enough energy so that it ionizes bound
electrons in the valence band upon colliding with them.

 This carrier multiplication mechanism is known as

impact ionization.

 The newly created carriers are also accelerated by the

high electric field, thus gaining enough energy to cause
further impact ionization. This phenomenon is the
avalanche effect.
Fig. Reach-through avalanche photodiode structure
 The reach-through avalanche photodiode (RAPD) is
composed of a high-resistivity p-type material
deposited as an epitaxial layer on a p+ (heavily doped
p-type) substrate.

 A p-type diffusion or ion implant is then made in the

high-resistivity material, followed by the construction
of an n+ (heavily doped n-type) layer.

 For silicon, the dopants used to form these layers are

normally boron and phosphorus, respectively. This
configuration is referred to as p+πpn+ reach-through
structure.
 The p layer is basically an intrinsic material that
inadvertently has some p doping because of imperfect
purification.

 The term “reach-through” arises from the photodiode

operation. When a low reverse-bias voltage is applied,
most of the potential drop is across the pn+ junction.

 The depletion layer widens with increasing bias until a

certain voltage is reached at which the peak electric
field at the pn+ junction is about 5–10 percent below
that needed to cause avalanche breakdown.

 At this point, the depletion layer just “reaches through”

to the nearly intrinsic p region.
 In normal usage, the RAPD is operated in the fully
depleted mode.

 Light enters the device through the p+ region and is

absorbed in the p material, which acts as the collection
region for the photogenerated carriers.

 Upon being absorbed, the photon gives up its energy,

thereby creating electron–hole pairs, which are then
separated by the electric fi eld in the p region.

 The photogenerated electrons drift through the p region

in the pn+ junction, where a high electric fi eld exists. It
is in this high-field region that carrier multiplication
takes place.
 The average number of electron–hole pairs created by a
carrier per unit distance traveled is called the ionization
rate.

 The multiplication M for all carriers generated in the

photodiode is defined by

where
IM is the average value of the total multiplied output current.
Ip is the primary unmultiplied photocurrent.

Responsivity RAPD
 Detector Response Time

 Depletion Layer Photocurrent

 Response Time
 Double-Heterostructure Photodiodes
 Depletion Layer Photocurrent

Fig: Schematic representation of a reverse-biased pin photodiode

 Light enters the device through the p layer and produces
electron–hole pairs as it is absorbed in the
semiconductor material.

 Those electron–hole pairs that are generated in the

depletion region or within a diffusion length of it will be
separated by the reverse bias-voltage-induced electric fi
eld, thereby leading to a current flow in the external
circuit as the carriers drift across the depletion layer.

 Under steady-state conditions, the total current density

Jtot flowing through the reverse-biased depletion layer is
Where,
Jdr is the drift current density resulting from carriers
generated inside the depletion region.

Jdiff is the diffusion current density arising from the carriers

that are produced outside of the depletion layer in the bulk
of the semiconductor (i.e., in the n and p regions) and
diffuse into the reverse-biased junction.
The drift current density can be found

where
A is the photodiode area and
Ф0 is the incident photon flux per unit area given by

 The surface p layer of a pin photodiode is normally

very thin.
 The diffusion current is thus principally determined by
hole diffusion from the bulk n region.
The hole diffusion in this material can be determined by
the one-dimensional diffusion equation

where
Dp is the hole diffusion coefficient,
pn is the hole concentration in the n-type material,
tp is the excess hole lifetime,
pn0 is the equilibrium hole density, and
G(x) is the electron–hole generation rate given by
So the diffusion current density is found to be

the total current density through the reverse-biased

depletion layer is

pn0 is normally small, so that the total photogenerated

current is proportional to the photon flux F 0.
Response Time
It depends mainly on the following three factors:
1. The transit time of the photocarriers in the depletion
region.
2. The diffusion time of the photocarriers generated outside
the depletion region.
3. The RC time constant of the photodiode and its
associated circuit.

The transit time td depends on the carrier drift velocity vd and

the depletion layer width w, and is given by
 Temperature Effect on Avalanche Gain

 The gain mechanism of an avalanche photodiode is very

temperature sensitive because of the temperature
dependence of the electron and hole ionization rates.

 This temperature dependence is particularly critical at

high bias voltages, where small changes in temperature
can cause large variations in gain.
For a silicon avalanche photodiode

 If the operating temperature decreases and the applied

bias voltage is kept constant, the ionization rates for
electrons and holes will increase and so will the
avalanche gain.
 To maintain a constant gain as the temperature changes,
the electric field in the multiplying region of the pn
junction must also be changed.

 This requires that the receiver incorporate a

compensation circuit that adjusts the applied bias
voltage on the photodetector when the temperature
changes.

 The temperature-dependent expression for the gain can

be obtained from the empirical relationship is
Comparisons of Photodetectors