To convert the received optical signal into an

electrical signal, which is then amplified

before further processing
 High sensitivity at the operating wavelengths.
 High fidelity.
 Large electrical response to the received

optical signal.
 Short response time
 A minimum noise introduced by the detector.
 Stability of performance characteristics..
 Small size.
 Low bias voltages.
 High reliability.
 Low cost.
 To detect optical radiation-external and internal
photoemission of electrons is utilized
 The internal photoemission process may take place
in both intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors
 For fast response coupled with efficient absorption
of photons, the intrinsic absorption process is
preferred and at present all detectors for optical
fiber communications use intrinsic photo detection.
 Silicon photodiodes have high sensitivity over the
0.8–0.9 μm wavelength band
 germanium and III–V alloys which give a good
response at the longer wavelengths.
 Other semiconductor detector type:-

heterojunction phototransistor and the

photoconductive detector
 This device is reverse biased and the electric
field developed across the p–n junction
sweeps mobile carriers (holes and electrons)
to their respective majority sides (p- and n-
type material).
 A depletion region or layer is therefore

created on either side of the junction.

 The field accelerates minority carriers from

both sides to the opposite side of the

junction, forming the reverse leakage current
of the diode
 A photon incident in or near the depletion
region of this device which has an energy
hf ≥ Eg excite an electron from the valence
band into the conduction band.
 This process leaves an empty hole in the

valence band and is known as the

photogeneration of an electron–hole (carrier)
pair
 Carrier pairs so generated near the junction

are separated and drift under the influence of

the electric field to produce a current in the
external circuit
The absorption of photons to produce carrier
pairs and thus a photocurrent is dependent
on the absorption coefficient α0 of the light in
the semiconductor used to fabricate the
device.
 At a specific wavelength the photocurrent Ip

produced by incident light of optical power

Po is given by

 e is the charge on an electron, r is the Fresnel

reflection coefficient at the semiconductor–air
interface and d is the width of the absorption
region
 The quantum efficiency η is defined as the fraction of
incident photons which are absorbed by the photo detector
and generate electrons which are collected at the detector
terminals

 One of the major factors which determines the quantum

efficiency is the absorption Coefficient of the semiconductor
material
 It is generally less than unity as not all of the incident
photons are absorbed to create electron–hole pairs.
 It is a function of the photon wavelength
 The responsivity R is defined as

where Ip is the output photocurrent in

amperes and Po is the incident optical power
in watts(i.e. output optical power from the
fiber)
 The responsivity is a useful parameter as it

gives the transfer characteristic of the

detector (i.e. photocurrent per unit incident
optical power)
 It is essential when considering the intrinsic
absorption process that the energy of
incident photons be greater than or equal to
the bandgap energy Eg of the material used
to fabricate the photodetector. Therefore, the
photon energy:
 Thus the threshold for detection, commonly
known as the long-wavelength cutoff point
λc, is:

 allows the calculation of the longest

wavelength of light to give photodetection for
the various semiconductor materials.