Miniaturizing color-sensitive photodetectors via hybrid nanoantennas toward submicrometer dimensions

Digital camera sensors use color filters on photodiodes to achieve color selectivity. As the color filters and photosensitive silicon layers are separate elements, these sensors suffer from optical cross-talk, which sets limits to the minimum pixel size. Here, we report hybrid silicon-aluminum nanostructures in the extreme limit of zero distance between color filters and sensors. This design could essentially achieve submicrometer pixel dimensions and minimize the optical cross-talk arising from tilt illuminations. The designed hybrid silicon-aluminum nanostructure has dual functionalities. Crucially, it supports a hybrid Mie-plasmon resonance of magnetic dipole to achieve color-selective light absorption, generating electron hole pairs. Simultaneously, the silicon-aluminum interface forms a Schottky barrier for charge separation and photodetection. This design potentially replaces the traditional dye-based filters for camera sensors at ultrahigh pixel densities with advanced functionalities in sensing polarization and directionality, and UV selectivity via interband plasmons of silicon.