Plasmonic Nanoslit Array Enhanced Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Optical Detectors

Metallic nanoslit arrays integrated on germanium metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors show many folds of absorption enhancement for transverse-magnetic polarization in the telecommunication C-band. Such high enhancement is attributed to resonant interference of surface plasmon modes at the metal-semiconductor interface. Horizontal surface plasmon modes were reported earlier to inhibit photodetector performance. We computationally show, however, that horizontal modes enhance the efficiency of surface devices despite reducing transmitted light in the far field.