Resonant cavity-enhanced (RCE) photodetectors

The photosensitivity characteristics of resonant cavity-enhanced (RCE) photodetectors are investigated. The photodetectors were formed by integrating the active absorption region into a resonant cavity composed of top and bottom (buried) mirrors. A general expression for quantum efficiency for RCE photodetectors was derived taking the external losses into account. Drastic enhancement in quantum efficiency is demonstrated at resonant wavelengths for a high quality factor Q cavity with a very thin absorption layer. An improvement by a factor of four in the bandwidth-efficiency product for RCE p-i-n detectors is predicted. Molecular beam epitaxy grown RCE-heterojunction phototransistors (RCE-HPT) were fabricated and measured demonstrating good agreement between experiment and theory.<>