Hybrid nano-scale Au with ITO structure for a high-performance near-infrared silicon-based photodetector with ultralow dark current

An internal photoemission-based silicon photodetector detects light below the silicon bandgap at room temperature and can exhibit spectrally broad behavior,making it potentially suited to meet the need for a near-infrared pure Si photodetector.In this work,the implementation of a thin Au insertion layer into an ITO/n-Si Schottky photodetector can profoundly affect the barrier height and significantly improve the device performance.By fabricating a nanoscale thin Au layer and an ITO electrode on a silicon substrate,we achieve a well-behaved ITO/Au/n-Si Schottky diode with a record dark current density of 3.7×10^(−7) A/cm^(2) at−1 V and a high rectification ratio of 1.5×10^(8) at±1 V.Furthermore,the responsivity has been obviously improved without sacrificing the dark current performance of the device by decreasing the Au thickness.Such a silicon-based photodetector with an enhanced performance could be a promising strategy for the realization of a monolithic integrated pure silicon photodetector in optical communication.