Metamaterial Perfect Absorber Based Hot Electron Photodetection *

Letter
pubs.acs.org/NanoLett
Metamaterial Perfect Absorber Based Hot Electron Photodetection
Wei Li and Jason Valentine*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37212, United States
S Supporting Information
*
ABSTRACT: While the nonradiative decay of surface plasmons was once thought to
be only a parasitic process that limits the performance of plasmonic devices, it has
recently been shown that it can be harnessed in the form of hot electrons for use in
photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and photodetectors. Unfortunately, the quantum
efficiency of hot electron devices remains low due to poor electron injection and in
some cases low optical absorption. Here, we demonstrate how metamaterial perfect
absorbers can be used to achieve near-unity optical absorption using ultrathin
plasmonic nanostructures with thicknesses of 15 nm, smaller than the hot electron
diffusion length. By integrating the metamaterial with a silicon substrate, we experimentally demonstrate a broadband and
omnidirectional hot electron photodetector with a photoresponsivity that is among the highest yet reported. We also show how
the spectral bandwidth and polarization-sensitivity can be manipulated through engineering the geometry of the metamaterial
unit cell. These perfect absorber photodetectors could open a pathway for enhancing hot electron based photovoltaic, sensing,
and photocatalysis systems.
KEYWORDS: Plasmonics, metamaterial perfect absorber, hot electrons, infrared photodetection
guides.13,14,17 However, the main drawback of previously
demonstrated hot electron detectors is their low photoresponsivity, typically on the order of a few tens to 100 μA/
W.11,16 Recent studies19,30 have reported significant advances in
detector efficiency by exciting propagating surface plasmon
polaritons (SPPs) using metal gratings19 or combining gratings
with deep trench cavities.30 For the latter case, a large efficiency
enhancement was achieved due to high optical absorption as a
result of the cavity and the use of thin metal layers, allowing the
electrons to diffuse to the metal-semiconductor interface before
thermalization. However, due to the use of a grating to excite
SPPs, the optical absorption and photocurrent will be sensitive
to the incident angle in these designs.
In this Letter, we present an approach to greatly enhance
photoresponsivity of hot electron detectors through the use of
metamaterial perfect absorbers (MPAs) that do not require an
optically thick ground plane. This allows us to integrate the
MPA with semiconductor layers that require high temperature
processing or growth. In our case, the MPA architecture is
integrated with n-type silicon (n-Si) to realize Schottky diode
based hot-electron photodetectors with high photoresponsivity
in the near-infrared region, well below the Si bandgap energy.
We experimentally characterize numerous MPA-based photodetectors with varying degrees of polarization sensitivity and
photoresponse bandwidth. By taking advantage of the strong
optical absorption in MPAs, combined with ultrathin metal
layers, we demonstrate photoresponsivities that are among the
highest reported while also preserving an omnidirectional,
polarization insensitive, and broadband response. Specifically,
we demonstrate a detector with an absorption full width at half-
Surface plasmons (SPs), coherent oscillations of electrons in
metals that can be excited with electromagnetic waves, are a key
component in routing and manipulating light at nanometer
length scales.1−3 Because of their deep-subwavelength mode
volumes and high-field concentrations, SPs provide a means to
realize numerous techniques, and optical devices such as
nanoscale imaging,5 subwavelength light concentrators,4 ultracompact lens and waveplates,6 photodetectors and modulators,1
photothermal devices,7,8 metamaterials,9 and plasmonic enhanced photovoltaic devices.10 Following excitation, surface
plasmons can either decay radiatively into re-emitted photons
or nonradiatively into energetic electrons. In most cases, the
nonradiative decay of plasmons is a parasitic process that limits
the performance of plasmonic devices. While much effort has
been devoted to suppressing nonradiative SP decay, recent
research has shown that the energetic, or hot, electrons can be
harnessed for a number of applications including photodetection,11−20 photovoltaic devices,21,22 photocatalysis,23−26
and surface imaging.27,28
In terms of photodetection, hot electron devices are typically
formed by placing the metal surface in contact with a
semiconductor,11 forming a Schottky barrier. Hot electrons
generated from the nonradiative decay of SPs can transport to
the metal-semiconductor interface before thermalization and be
injected into the conduction band of the semiconductor,
resulting in photocurrent. In this case, the photodetector’s
bandwidth is limited by the Schottky barrier height, instead of
the bandgap of the semiconductor. This allows one to achieve
broadband absorption at energies below the bandgap of the
semiconductor,11,29 provided the plasmonic structure has a
broad absorption spectrum. SP-based hot electron detectors
have been demonstrated using a variety of structures including
nanorods,11,29 nanowires,16,20 metal gratings,19,30 and wave© 2014 American Chemical Society
Received: March 23, 2014
Published: May 16, 2014
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Figure 1. (a) Schematic of the MPA unit cell with upper and lower
resonators (gold) integrated with a semiconductor (blue). (b)
Simulated electric field distribution in the MPA under illumination
with TM-polarized light. (c) Simulated optical reflection, transmission,
and absorption for an MPA with L = 160 nm, P = 320 nm, H = 120
nm metallized with a 1 nm thick Ti adhesion and 15 nm thick Au
layer.
maximum (fwhm) up to 800 nm and a photoresponsivity larger
than 1.8 mA/W from 1200 to 1500 nm. This design is also
scalable to arbitrary wavelengths within the solar spectrum and
could potentially open a pathway for enhancing the efficiency of
hot electron based photovoltaic, sensing, and photocatalysis
systems.
To begin, we first examine a polarization sensitive MPA
photodetector composed of 1D metal stripes, a schematic of
which is illustrated in Figure 1a. The MPA is composed of a
prepatterned n-type Si substrate, forming Si stripes, with a 1 nm
titanium adhesion layer and a 15 nm gold film deposited on the
surface. The metal film is naturally separated into upper and
lower plasmonic stripe resonators. When the MPA is
illuminated with TM-polarized light (E-field perpendicular to
the stripe direction), localized surface plasmon resonances
(LSPRs) are excited on the upper and lower resonators (Figure
1b). A Fabry−Perot resonance is also present in the cavity
formed from the upper and lower stripe resonator layers. By
carefully designing the resonator length L, cavity height H, and
periodicity P, the resonator and cavity resonances can be
overlapped, leading to near unity absorption as calculated using
a full-wave simulation and shown in Figure 1c. Furthermore,
the thickness of the plasmonic resonator is only 15 nm, less
than the hot electron diffusion length,31 ensuring that the hot
electrons have a high probability of diffusing to the metal−
semiconductor interface. It should be pointed out that in
contrast with most of the previously demonstrated MPA
structures32−34 all the metal constituents in our proposed MPA
design are ultrathin and an optically thick metallic ground plane
is not required. This ensures that all of the optical absorption
and hot electron generation occurs in the thin plasmonic
resonator layers. This architecture also eliminates the need to
grow a high quality semiconductor on top of a metal film which
would be challenging due to the high process temperatures
required.
To experimentally characterize the photodetector, fabrication
began by first defining the stripe patterns on a double side
Figure 2. (a) Schematic of the fabricated 1D MPA photodetector
including a thin metal coating on the sidewall. Dimensions of the MPA
detectors D1, D2, and D3 are L = 160, 170, and 170 nm and P = 320,
320, and 340 nm, respectively. The etching depth, H, for the three
devices was 120 nm. (b) SEM image of a fabricated device. (c)
Experimentally measured (solid lines) and simulated (dashed lines)
absorption spectra of D1, D2, and D3 (red, green, and blue solid lines,
respectively). (d) Experimentally measured (circles) and calculated
(lines) photoresponsivity spectra of D1, D2, and D3 (red, green, and
blue, respectively).
polished n-type Si wafer using PMMA and electron beam
lithography (EBL). The MPA detectors were patterned with an
overall size of 85 μm × 85 μm. The PMMA was used as a mask
for patterning the underlying n-type Si using reactive-ion
etching (RIE). After the RIE process, the sample was immersed
in a 10:1 buffered oxide etchant (BOE) for 1 min to completely
remove the native oxide. The sample was then immediately
transferred into an evaporation chamber followed by deposition
of 1 nm Ti and 15 nm Au layers. More details regarding
fabrication can be found in Section 1 and Figure S1 of the
Supporting Information. Three devices, D1, D2, and D3, were
fabricated (Figure 2a,b) with dimensions of L = 160, 170, and
170 nm and P = 320, 320, and 340 nm, respectively. The
etching depth H for the three devices was 120 nm, which was
measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM).
The optical absorption spectra of the devices were acquired
by measuring the reflection R and transmission T in an infrared
microscope coupled to a grating spectrometer. The reflection
spectra were normalized to a silver mirror and the transmission
spectra were normalized to transmission through air with
absorption calculated as A = 1 − T − R. The optical absorption
of these devices is shown in Figure 2c (more details are
provided in Section 2 and Figure S2 of the Supporting
Information). The devices show broadband optical absorption
in the near IR region with a maximum value of 95% and a fwhm
of 400 nm. In the fabricated structure, there is a thin coating of
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metal on the sidewall of the Si ridge due to the slight sidewall
angle. As a result, the absorption peak positions of the
fabricated structure are slightly blue shifted compared to the
structure simulated in Figure 1. However, good agreement is
observed between the simulated absorption spectrum with the
sidewall coating and the measured absorption spectrum (Figure
2c). More details regarding the numerical simulations are
provided in Section 3 and Figures S3−S5 of the Supporting
Information. The connection between the upper and lower
resonators also ensures that both of the metal layers are
included in the electrical circuit and can contribute to the total
photocurrent.
To characterize the hot-electron transfer efficiency of the
devices, the sample was wire bonded to a chip carrier and
photocurrent measurements were performed on the MPA
detectors across a wavelength range of 1200 to 1500 nm
(Figure 2d). These MPA photodetectors have broad photoresponsivity spectra with peak values of 3.37 mA/W, 3.05 mW,
and 2.75 mW for devices D1, D2, and D3, respectively.
Furthermore, these measurements were performed without an
external bias and the current varied linearly with the incident
power (Supporting Information Figure S6), indicating that
nonlinear processes are not playing a role in the response.
These photoresponsivities are several orders of magnitude
larger than previously demonstrated LSPR based nanoantenna
photodetectors11 and over four times larger than the SPP-based
metal grating photodetectors.19 The photoresponsivities of the
MPA detectors are comparable with the recently reported deep
trench cavity structure30 at short wavelengths. However, the
MPA detectors have a broader bandwidth resulting in larger
photoresponsivity at long wavelengths.
The photocurrent in the MPA detectors can be understood
by considering the hot electron transfer process over the
Schottky barrier, which is dictated by a three-step model35,36 as
shown in Figure 3a. (1) Plasmons nonradiatively decay into hot
electrons (optical absorption), (2) hot electrons transport to
the metal-semiconductor interface before thermalization, and
(3) hot electrons inject into the conduction band of the
semiconductor through internal photoemission. Here, we
analyze the two different components of the MPA detectors
separately, the upper resonator and the lower resonator, which
yield different hot electron generation and quantum transmission probabilities. As a result, the photoresponsivity
spectrum of MPA detectors can be calculated as
R (ν ) =
∑ A1i(ν)η2(ν)η3i(ν)
i=u,l
Figure 3. (a) Schematic of the hot electron transfer process over the
Schottky barrier formed by the metal−semiconductor interface. Steps
1 to 3 correspond to hot electron generation, diffusion to the Schottky
interface, and transmission to the conduction band of semiconductor.
(b) FDTD simulation of absorbed power density in a 1D MPA device
at 1250, 1350, and 1500 nm (plotted on a logarithmic scale for better
visualization). (c) Calculated photoresponsivity (solid lines) and
absorption (dash lines) in a MPA device. The total (red), upper
resonator (green), and lower resonator (blue) contributions are
plotted separately.
and mean free path of the hot electrons.31 ηi3(ν) is the internal
photoemission of hot electrons across the Schottky interface for
the upper and lower resonator and is calculated using the
modified Fowler equation37,38
η3i(ν) = C Fi
(3)
hν
where
is the device-specific Fowler emission coefficient, hν
is the photon energy, and qϕB = 0.54 eV is the Schottky barrier
height for the MPA devices which is extracted from the
current−voltage characteristics of the device (Supporting
Information Figure S7).38 Fitting the experimentally measured
photoresponsivity spectrum with eq 1, where η2(ν) and CiF are
treated as fitting parameters, results in good agreement with the
experimental data as shown in Figure 2d. The extracted ratio of
ClF/CuF is around 3 for all three devices, indicating that hot
electrons generated in the lower resonator have a higher
quantum transmission probability compared with the upper
resonator. This effect is mainly due to the formation of a 3D
Schottky interface between the semiconductor and the
embedded bottom resonator, allowing the hot electrons to
cross the interface over a larger emission cone.16 While total
absorption drops at longer wavelengths, the bottom resonator
layer’s contribution remains relatively constant, resulting in it
dominating the photocurrent at long wavelengths (Figure 3c).
Strong broadband absorption A1(ν) and high transport
efficiency η2(ν) in the ultrathin metal film ultimately ensure
high photoresponsivity over a large bandwidth.
CiF
(1)
where u and l represent the upper and lower resonators,
respectively, and ν is frequency. Ai1(ν) is the optical absorptivity
of each component, which can be determined by the measured
total absorption spectrum of the MPA detectors (Figure 2c)
along with the absorption distribution in each resonator layer.
The absorption distribution in the MPA devices (Figure 3b) are
calculated numerically using the local ohmic loss, given by
Q (r , ω) =
1
ω Im(εm)|E ⃗(r , ω)|2
2
(hν − qϕB)2
(2)
where E⃗ (r,ω) is the local electric field and Im(εm) is the
imaginary part of the metal permittivity. This allows us to
determine the wavelength dependent absorptivity of the upper,
Au1, and lower, Al1, resonator (dash lines in Figure 3c). η2(ν) is
the probability that the hot electron will transport to the
Schottky interface and is dependent on the spatial distribution
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Figure 4. (a) Schematic of the polarization-independent MPA photodetectors. Dimensions of MPA photodetectors D4, D5, and D6 are L = 185,
195, and 195 nm and P = 340, 340, and 360 nm, respectively. The etching depth, H, for the three devices was 135 nm. (b) SEM image of a fabricated
device. (c) Experimentally measured (solid lines) and simulated (dashed lines) absorption spectra of D4, D5, and D6 (red, green, and blue lines,
respectively) (d) FDTD simulation of the angularly dependent optical absorption for p- (left) and s-polarized light (right). (e) Experimentally
measured (circles) and calculated (lines) photoresponsivity spectra of D4, D5, and D6 (red, green, and blue, respectively).
detector is larger than 1.8 mA/W from 1200 to 1500 nm
(Figure 5d), making it a candidate for broadband, polarizationindependent, and omnidirectional silicon based near-IR photodetectors.
The performance of the MPA detector could be further
improved by engineering the Schottky barrier height, roughing
the metal semiconductor interface,14 or embedding the top
resonator layer within the semiconductor.16 Also, while we have
focused on maximizing the bandwidth of the photoresponse,
the tunability of the MPA architecture also offers a possibility to
achieve a narrowband photoresponse. For instance, a narrow
Fano resonance can be realized in these structures by coupling
a grating mode with the LSPR resonance, leading to an
extremely narrow absorption band39 that could potentially lead
to a plasmonic spectrometer with direct electrical readout.19
Furthermore, although the demonstrated MPA detectors work
in the near IR region, they can be scaled to the visible regime by
replacing Si with a higher bandgap semiconductor such as TiO2.
In the visible regime, the use of ultrathin metal layers in this
type of MPA design could be particularly beneficial due to the
drastically reduced hot electron diffusion length.31
To summarize, we have proposed and experimentally
demonstrated the first metamaterial perfect absorber hot
electron photodetector. Realizing near unity absorption within
ultrathin plasmonic nanostructures allows the efficiency of the
hot electron transfer process to be significantly enhanced,
resulting in photoresponsivities that are among the highest
reported. Furthermore, the MPA architecture allows us to
preserve a broadband, omnidirectional, and polarization
invariant response. This ultracompact, CMOS-compatible Sibased MPA detector can also be readily integrated into on-chip
optoelectronics and can be scaled to the solar spectrum, leading
to enhanced efficiencies in hot-electron based photodetection,
photovoltaic, and photocatalysis systems.
In order to achieve a polarization-independent photoresponse, the 1D stripe resonators can be replaced by square
resonators, forming a 2D MPA structure as shown in Figure
4a,b. In this case, the upper resonator layer can still contribute
to the photocurrent due to the thin metal sidewall coating.
Experimental validation of this concept was accomplished using
three devices D4, D5, and D6 with dimensions of L = 185, 195,
and 195 nm and P = 340, 340, and 360 nm, respectively. The
etching depth H for the three devices was 135 nm, confirmed
by AFM. These polarization-independent MPA structures still
maintain near-unity absorption (Figure 4c) over a large
bandwidth. Furthermore, a peak absorptivity above 90% is
maintained for incident angles of up to 75 and 60° under p- and
s-polarized light, respectively (Figure 4d). This LSPR driven
response is in contrast to previously demonstrated metal
grating19 and the deep trench cavity30 hot electron photodetectors which rely on the excitation of SPPs through grating
coupling, resulting in an angularly sensitive response. As a
result, these 2D MPA detectors show high photoresponsivities
(Figure 4e) while also preserving a broadband, omnidirectional,
and polarization-independent response.
Taking advantage of the high photoresponsivity and
tunability of the 2D MPA structures, we can further enhance
the absorption bandwidth by implementing MPAs with
multiple resonator sizes. To demonstrate this, we combine
two different 2D MPA unit cells, forming a bipartite
checkerboard supercell, shown in Figure 5a,b. In this case,
the separate resonances of the two MPA unit cells result in
bandwidth enhancement, though there is a slight decrease in
peak absorption. However, the broadband MPA detector with
dimensions L1 = 185 nm, L2 = 225 nm, P = 680 nm, and H =
160 nm, still maintains absorptivity over 80% from 1250 to
1500 nm (Figure 5c). Although the experimental fwhm of the
absorption was not measurable due to the limited detection
range of the spectrometer, data from simulations show a fwhm
of over 800 nm. The photoresponsivity of this broadband MPA
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Figure 5. (a) Schematic of the broadband MPA photodetector.
Dimensions of the MPA photodetector are L1 = 185 nm, L2 = 225 nm,
P = 680 nm, H = 160 nm. (b) SEM image of the fabricated device. (c)
Experimentally measured (solid) and simulated (dashed) absorption
spectra of the broadband MPA detector. (d) Experimentally measured
(circles) and calculated (line) photoresponsivity spectra of the
broadband MPA photodetector.
■
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information
*
Details of device fabrication, modeling, characterization, and
Figure S1−S7. This material is available free of charge via the
Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
■
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: jason.g.valentine@vanderbilt.edu.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
■
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) under program CBET-1336455. Device fabrication was
performed at the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and
Engineering (VINSE); we thank the staff for their support.
■
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