Embedded metallic nanoparticles for on-chip infrared detection

Conventional silicide Schottky barrier photodetector suffers from low responsivity due to the low emission probability of photoexcited hot carriers from the silicide layer to the Si layer. The photoexcited carriers in metallic nanoparticle may have large emission probability because they meet the metal/Si interface at all directions. Moreover, the light absorption by the metallic nanoparticles may also be dramatically enhanced due to excitation of localized surface plasmon resonance. A proof-of-concept detector based on the embedded Ni silicide nanopaticles are fabricated using standard CMOS technology. It exhibits a peak responsivity of ~30 mA/W and a 3-dB bandwidth of ~6 GHz. The approaches to improve the performance are addressed.