Microcrystalline Silicon Photodiode For Large Area NIR Light Detection Applications

This letter reports on microcrystalline silicon near infrared (NIR) photodiode detector. The fabricated device shows dynamic ratio of 200 at 850 nm wavelength per 0.2 mW/cm
²
of incident power density at reverse bias voltage of -1 V with response time of 400 μs. The dynamic ratio achieved here is 15 times higher than the state of art large area inorganic a-SiGe:H phototransistor and twice the one for state of art organic cyanine based NIR detector. The speed of this device is 40 times faster than the a-SiGe:H detector. The overall advantage of high dynamic ratio and fast response alongside with compatibility with standard a-Si:H thin film transistor industry makes this device suitable for large area NIR detection applications.