Chapter 6: Optical Detectors

Overview of Optical Detector

An essential component of an optical fibre communication

system, dictates the overall system performance.

Its function is to convert the received optical signal into an

electrical signal.

It must satisfy a significant requirements for performance and

compatibility:
High sensitivity at the operating wavelengths (1200-1600nm).
High fidelity. Linearity is important for analog transmission.
Short response time to obtain a suitable bandwidth.
A minimum noise introduced by the detector.
Stability of performance characteristics.
Small size for efficient coupling to the fibre and easy
packaging with the following electronics.
Low bias voltages.
High reliability and low cost.

Overview of Optical Detector

Device types:

Photodiodes
Phototransistors
Photoconductive detectors
Photomultiplier tubes
Phototube

Optical Detection Principles

A photon incident in the depletion region (hf> Eg) will excite an

electron from the valence band into the conduction band,
leaving an empty hole in the valence band absorption.

Carrier pair generated near the junction are separated and

swept (drift) under the influence of the electric field to produce
a displacement by current in the external circuit in an excess of
any reverse leakage current.

Reverse bias condition

When external battery is connected to the p-n junction with

positive terminal to the n-type and vice versa, the junction is
said reverse biased.
Depletion region increased, barrier potential increases and
prevents any majority carriers flowing across the junction.
A reverse bias widens the depletion region, but allows minority
carriers to move freely with the applied field.

Optical generation of carriers in a PN

junction.

The high electric field present in the depletion region causes the
carrier to separate and be collected across the reversed biased
junction.

The high electric field present in the depletion region causes the
carriers to separate and be collected across the reverse biased
junction

This gives rise to a current flow in an external circuit, with one

electron flowing for every carrier pair generated. This current flow is
known as photocurrent.

Absorption

Assume only bandgap transitions,

the photocurrent IP produced by
incident light of optical power P0 is:
Light
penetration
depth (m)

The upper wavelength cutoff C is

determined by the bandgap energy
of
the material:
Wavelength (m)

Photodiode Material

Some of the important photodiode

characteristic for several photodiode
material:-

Example

A photodiode is constructed of Ga As, which

has a band-gap energy of 1.43 eV at 300 K.
Find the long-wavelength cutoff for the
photodiode.
Given: 1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 J/eV

Quantum efficiency

is a function of the photon wavelength

To

obtain a high the width of the depletion layer,

One

of the important characteristic of photodetector

The

quantum efficiency is the number of electron-hole carrier pairs

generated per incident photon of energy hv.
IP

is the average photocurrent generated by a steady-state average

optical power, P0 incident on the photodiode.

Responsivity

The performance of photodiode is often

characterized by the responsivity, R. This is
related to quantum efficiency by:-

Example

Long Wavelength Cut-of

Photodiodes

Two types of photodiodes commonly used

PIN (p-type, intrinsic, n-type) diodes, and
Avalanche photodiodes (APDs)

PIN Photodiode
the thickness of the depletion region is controlled by i-layer, not by the reverse
voltage
most of the incident photons absorbed in the thick i-layer - high
large electric field across the i-layer - efficient separation of the generated
electrons & holes
The p and n layers are extremely thin compare to i-layer - diffusion current is
very small
The increase in the i-width reduces the speed of a photodiode

The speed of response of the photodiode is limited by

the time it takes to collect the carriers (drift time)
the capacitance of the depletion layer (RC time constant of the detector circuit)

Photodiodes

Avalanche photodiodes (APDs)

It is a photodiodes with internal gain
An additional layer is added in which secondary electron-hole pairs are generated
through impact ionization.
Internally multiplied the primary photocurrent before it enters the input circuitry of
the following amplifier.
Commonly used structure: Reach-through APD (RAPD)
The RAPD is composed of a high-resistivity p-type and p+ (heavily doped p-type )

p-n Photodiode

Typical p-n Photodiode Output

Characteristic

p-i-n Photodiode

III-V P-i-N photodiodes - InGaAs/InP

Epitaxial growth of several layers on a n-type InP

substrate.
Incident light is absorbed in the low-doped n-type InGaAs
layer
lattice matched In0.53Ga0.47As/InP system, C = 1.67m
Drawback - optical absorption in the undepleted p+ region.

Comparisons of Common P-i-N

Photodiodes
Responsivity

Dark Current

Avalanche Photodiode (APD)

Impact Ionization

Impact Ionization

The average number of e-h pairs created by a carrier per

unit distance travelled is called the ionization
rate/coefficient

In the high field region of an APD, photogenerated electrons

and holes can acquire sufficient energy to create new
electron-hole pairs through impact ionization process.

These secondary carriers gain enough energy to ionize other

Electric Field
Electron the avalanche process
carriers, causing
of creating new
carriers.
e

Hole Impact
Ionization

Electron Impact
Ionization

hv

Ec

h
Hole

Ev

Multiplication Factor

The measured value of M is expressed as an average quantity since the avalanche

mechanism is a statistical process; not every carrier pair generated in the diode
experiences the same multiplication.

Benefits and Drawbacks with the APD

PiN or APD
Characteristics of common P-i-N Photodiodes

Characteristics of common APDs