Theoretical Investigation of Near-Infrared Fabry–Pérot Microcavity Graphene/Silicon Schottky Photodetectors Based on Double Silicon on Insulator Substrates

In this work a new concept of silicon resonant cavity enhanced photodetector working at 1550 nm has been theoretically investigated. The absorption mechanism is based on the internal photoemission effect through a graphene/silicon Schottky junction incorporated into a silicon-based Fabry–Pérot optical microcavity whose input mirror is constituted by a double silicon-on-insulator substrate. As output mirror we have investigated two options: a distributed Bragg reflector constituted by some periods of silicon nitride/hydrogenated amorphous silicon and a metallic gold reflector. In addition, we have investigated and compared two configurations: one where the current is collected in the transverse direction with respect to the direction of the incident light, the other where it is collected in the longitudinal direction. We show that while the former configuration is characterized by a better responsivity, spectral selectivity and noise equivalent power, the latter configuration is superior in terms of bandwidth and responsivity × bandwidth product. Our results show responsivity of 0.24 A/W, bandwidth in GHz regime, noise equivalent power of 0.6 nW/cm√Hz and full with at half maximum of 8.5 nm. The whole structure has been designed to be compatible with silicon technology.