Germanium photodetectors are considered to be mature components in the silicon photonics device library. They are critical for applications in sensing, communications, or optical interconnects. In this work, we report on design, fabrication, and experimental demonstration of an integrated waveguide PIN photodiode architecture that calls upon lateral double Silicon/Germanium/Silicon (Si/Ge/Si) heterojunctions. This photodiode configuration takes advantage of the compatibility with contact process steps of silicon modulators, yielding reduced fabrication complexity for transmitters and offering high-performance optical characteristics, viable for high-speed and efficient operation near 1.55 μm wavelengths. More specifically, we experimentally obtained at a reverse voltage of 1V a dark current lower than 10 nA, a responsivity higher than 1.1 A/W, and a 3 dB opto-electrical cut-off frequency over 50 GHz. The combined benefits of decreased process complexity and high-performance device operation pave the way towards attractive integration strategies to deploy cost-effective photonic transceivers on silicon-on-insulator substrates.

Near-infrared (near-IR) Germanium (Ge) photodetectors monolithically integrated on top of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates are universally regarded as key enablers towards chip-scale nanophotonics, with applications ranging from sensing and health monitoring to object recognition and optical communications. In this work, we report on the high-data-rate performance pin waveguide photodetectors made of lateral hetero-structured Silicon-Germanium-Silicon (Si-Ge-Si) junction operating under low reverse bias at 1.55 µm. The pin photodetector integration scheme considerably eases device manufacturing and is fully compatible with complementary metaloxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. In particular, the hetero-structured Si-Ge-Si photodetectors show efficiency-bandwidth products of ~9 GHz at-1 V and ~30 GHz at-3 V, with a leakage dark-current as low as ~150 nA, allowing a superior signal detection of high-speed data traffics. A bit-error-rate of 10-9 is achieved for conventional 10 Gbps, 20 Gbps and 25 Gbps data rates, yielding optical power sensitivities of-13.85 dBm,-12.70 dBm, and-11.25 dBm, respectively. This demonstration opens up new horizons towards cost-effective Ge pin waveguide photodetectors that combine fast device operation at low voltages with standard semiconductor fabrication processes, as desired for reliable on-chip architectures in next generation nanophotonics integrated circuits.

A polarimetry based method able to characterize optical properties of linear Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), even in presence of time-fluctuations of the phase, is proposed in this work. In particular, mean linear retardance, Liquid Crystal (LC) fast axis orientation and phase fluctuation amplitude of LCDs can be obtained with the proposed alternative technique. This technique enables to achieve these important features of LCDs with a set-up significantly less complicated to build up and with faster measurements than previously proposed techniques, which are based on diffraction or interferometry experiments. The validity of the technique is tested by measuring two different LCDs: one monopixel PA-LC panel working in transmission and a reflective PA-LCoS display. The technique provides similar results than those obtained by using previously proposed methods, confirming the validity of our alternative technique.

On-chip light detection is universally regarded as a key functionality that enables myriad of applications, including optical communications, sensing, health monitoring or object recognition, to name a few. Silicon is widely used in the microelectronics industry. However, its electronics bandgap precludes the fabrication of high-performance photodetectors that operate at wavelengths longer that 1.1 µm, a spectral range harnessed by optical communication windows of low fiber attenuation and dispersion. Conversely, Germanium, a group-IV semiconductor as Silicon, with a cutoff wavelength of ~1.8 µm, yields efficient light detection at near-infrared wavelengths. Germanium-based photodetectors are mature building blocks in the library of silicon nanophotonic devices, with a low dark-current, a fast response, a high responsivity and low power consumption with an established fabrication flow. In this work, we report on the design, fabrication and operation of waveguide pin photodetectors that advantageously exploit lateral Silicon/Germanium/Silicon heterojunctions. Devices were fabricated on 200 mm silicon-on-insulator substrates using standard microelectronics production tools and processes. This photodetector architecture takes advantage of the compatibility with contact process steps of silicon modulators, thereby offering substantially reduced fabrication complexity for transmitters and receivers, while providing improved optical characteristics. More specifically, at a lowbias reverse voltage of-1 V, we experimentally achieved dark-currents lower that 10 nA, a device photo-responsivity up to 1.1 A/W, and large 3-dB opto-electrical bandwidths over 50 GHz. In addition, high-speed data rate transmission measurements via eye diagram inspection have been conducted, with pin photodetector operation at the conventional 10 Gbps up to the future 40 Gbps link speeds.