Ultrathin high efficiency photodetectors based on subwavelength grating and near-field enhanced absorption

Optical absorbers, comprising a thin semiconductor layer placed between two transparent ones in close proximity to a subwavelength grating, are considered. With no back mirror, these structures only mimic the resonant cavity enhanced photodetector, being an order of magnitude thinner. It is argued that the grating can assist the light confinement by near field microcavity resonance rather than by far field mirroring. Tolerant designs to attain nearly 100% optical absorption at a predefined wavelength are demonstrated, and the near-field enhancement of the absorption is confirmed. The results obtained indicate that the proposed near field enhanced photodetectors meet the combined challenges of significantly increasing the efficiency and reducing the complexity and size of the entire device as compared to the resonant cavity enhanced photodetectors, which may be useful for integrated multi-detector arrays.