Quasi-resonant cavity enhanced photodetector with a subwavelength grating

We designed a tunable wavelength-selective quasi-resonant cavity enhanced photodetector (QRCE-PD) based on a high-contrast subwavelength grating (SWG). According to simulation results, its peak quantum efficiency is 93.2%, the 3 dB bandwidth is 33.5 GHz, the spectral linewidth is 0.12 nm, and the wavelength-tuning range is 28 nm (1536–1564 nm). The QRCE-PD contains a tunable Fabry–Perot (F-P) filtering cavity (FPC), a symmetrical SWG deflection reflector (SSWG-DR), and a built-in p-i-n photodiode. The FPC and the SSWG-DR form an equivalent multi-region F-P cavity together by multiple mutual mirroring, which makes the QRCE-PD a multi-region resonant cavity enhanced photodetector. But, QRCE-PD relies on the multiple-pass absorption enhanced effect to achieve high quantum efficiency, rather than the resonant cavity enhanced effect. This new photodetector structure is significant for the application in the dense wavelength division multiplexing systems.