Hydrodynamic Analysis and Responsivity Improvement of a Metal/Semiconductor/Metal Plasmonic Detector

Characteristic improvements of photon/plasmon detectors have been the subject of several investigations in the area of plasmonic integrated circuits. Among different suggestions, silicon-based metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) waveguides are one of the most popular structures for the implementation of high-quality photon/plasmon detectors in infrared wavelengths. In this paper, an integrated silicon-germanium (SiGe) core MSM plasmon detector is proposed to detect λ = 1550 nm with internal photoemission mechanism. Performance characteristics of the new sub-micron device are simulated with a simplified hydrodynamic model. In a specific bias point (V = 3 V and the incident optical power of 0.31 mW), the output current is 404.3 μA (276 μA detection current and 128.3 μA dark current), responsivity is 0.89 A/W, and the 3-dB electrical bandwidth is 120 GHz. Simulation results for the proposed plasmon detector, in comparison with the empirical results of a reported Si-based MSM device, demonstrate considerable responsivity enhancement.