Abstract

High-speed detectors are useful in a wide range of applications, including Lidar, fiber optics, and millimeter-wave optoelectronics. The fundamental limits of detector performance are the transit time across the depletion region and the rc time constant of the diode capacitance and the load resistor.¹ Making the absorbing layer thinner makes the transit time lower, but it raises the capacitance, whereas thicker detectors have low capacitance but high transit times. This fundamental trade-off is resolved in an optimum thickness that is dependent on detector diameter and material constants.

© 1995 Optical Society of America