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Photo-detector

Optical receiver
 It is a transducers that convert optical signals into electrical signals.
 It generates an electrical current proportional to the intensity of the
incident optical light.
 It consists of
 Photodetector
 Low-noise amplifier
 Other circuitry.

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Photo detector Requirements

• Low noise
• Reasonable cost
• Fast response time –High bandwidth
• Insensitive to temperature variations
• Long operating life
• High fidelity
• Large electrical response to the received optical signal
• Stability of performance characteristics
• Small size
• Low bias voltages
• High reliability
• Low cost

Dark Resistivity
• Under the thermal equilibrium conditions, the
population of thermally excited carriers in a
semiconductor mainly depends upon the
doping and the lattice temperature. This
determines the resistivity of the material
• This resistivity (equilibrium resistivity) is
referred as dark resistivity.

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• In an intrinsic semiconductor, the number of thermally excited

electrons is always equal to the number of holes. The dark
resistivity for an intrinsic semiconductor is given by
  (qp p  qn n )
 n ,  p  Mobility  of  electrons  and  holes
 Dark  Conductivity
p, n  carrier  concentratio  of  electron  and  hole
 Dark  Re sistivity
1 1
 Dark  
 Dark qA(n n  p p )
L L
RDark   Dark 
A qA(n n  p p )

Photoconductive Materials
The electrical conductivity
of certain semiconductor
material increases when
they are exposed to light.

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Photoconductive Materials
• If a semiconductor with photoconducting properties is
subjected to a beam of light with photon energy hν
n, p  excess  carrier  concentration
 Light  q(n  n)  n  q( p  p)  p
1 1
 Light  
 Light q[(n  n)  n  ( p  p)  p ]
L L
RLight   Light 
A qA[(n  n)  n  ( p  p)  p ]

Provided that hν≥ Eg.

Where hν is the photon energy falling on the semiconductor and
Eg is the bandgap of the semiconductor
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Light Dependent Resistor

• The problem with photoconductive detectors
are
– Small fractional change in R.
– Slow due to photogenerated carriers remain
within the material for a longer time due to large
minority carrier lifetime (msec).

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Absorption Coefficient
• The photocurrent produced in a photodiode is given by
Po q(1  r )
IP  [1  e  o d ]
hf
Po  Optical  power  of  incident  light
r  Fresnel  reflection  coeffecient
 o  Absorption  coeffecient
d  Width  of  the  absorption  region
• Absorption coefficient is strongly dependent on
wavelength
• It differs with the variations in band gap energy

Materials for Photodiodes

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Direct and indirect Absorption

• A photodiode material should be made with a
band gap slightly less than the photon energy
corresponding to the longest operating
wavelength of the system
• This gives sufficiently high absorption
coefficient to ensure good response.
• It limits the number of thermally generated
carriers and hence low dark current.

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Direct and indirect Absorption

• Si weakly absorbs over the wavelength band of interest of optical fiber communication.
• For Si. Threshold for indirect absorption is 1.09µm.(for Eg=1.14eV)
• Si can be only used for first generation Communication (0.8 to 0.9 µm)
• For Si. Threshold for direct absorption is 0.3µm(Eg=4.10eV)-ultraviolet
• For Ge. Threshold for indirect absorption is 1.85µm.(for Eg=0.67eV)
• For Ge. Threshold for direct absorption is 1.53µm.(for Eg=0.81eV)
• Ge can be used for first and second generation Communication (0.8 to 1.6 µm)

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III-V Alloys
• The disadvantage of using Ge is that it has narrow
band gap and gives relatively large dark current
• III-V alloys have overcome this limitation.
• Their band gaps can be tailored.
• Ternary alloys such as InGaAs, GaAsSb on InP and
GaAs substrate can operate over long
wavelengths.
• InGaAsP/InP and GaAlAsSb/GaSb also have their
applications in advanced photodiode structures.

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Quantum Efficiency
• The quantum efficiency is “the fraction of incident photons
which are absorbed by the photo detector and generate
electrons which are collected at the detector terminals”
number  of  electrons  collected  per  sec ond

number  of  photons  incident  per  sec ond
r Rate  of  collected  photons
 e 
rp Rate  of  incident  photon

• Absorption coefficient of a semiconductor determines the

quantum efficiency
• It is less than unity.
• It is a function of wavelength and it is quoted for a specific
wavelength.

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Responsivity
• Responsivity is used to characterize the
performance of photo detector.
IP
R
Po
I P  Output  photocurrent
Po  Incident  optical  power

• It gives transfer characteristics of the detector

i.e. output current vs. input power

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Responsivity
• Rate of incident photon is given by
Po
rP  I
q
 qre IP
hf R
t Po
r
 e P 
rp IP  q o Rq
hf hf
Po
re  rp  
hf Rq
hc

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Responsivity of Si Photodiode

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• Photoresponsivity drops rapidly at cutoff wavelength

• As the wavelength of incident photon becomes longer the photon
energy will become lesser than bandgap energy.
• Therefore responsivity falls to zero.
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Long wavelength cutoff

• Energy of incident photon should be greater than or
hc
equal to the band gap energy Eg of the material of
photo detector.  Eg
• Long wavelength cutoff point is the threshold for 
detection. i.e it is the possible longest wavelength that a
hc
•
photo detector an detect.
The incident wavelength must be less than or equal to 
the cutoff wavelength. Eg
• The optical signal having wavelength greater than the
critical wavelength can not be detected by the photo hc
detector. o 
• This expression for cutoff wavelength is for intrinsic Eg
photo detectors.
• For extrinsic photo detectors it will be different but
extrinsic photodetector are used in optical fiber
communication.

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