Waveguide-integrated, plasmonic enhanced graphene photodetectors

We present a micrometer-scale, on-chip integrated, plasmonic enhanced graphene photodetector (GPD) for telecom wavelengths operating at zero dark current. The GPD is designed to directly generate a photovoltage by the photothermoelectric effect. It is made of chemical vapor deposited single layer graphene, and has an external responsivity ~12.2 V/W with a 3 dB bandwidth ~42 GHz. We utilize Au split-gates to electrostatically create a p-n-junction and simultaneously guide a surface plasmon polariton gap-mode. This increases the light−graphene interaction and optical absorption and results in an increased electronic temperature and steeper temperature gradient across the GPD channel. This paves the way to compact, on-chip integrated, power-efficient graphene based photodetectors for receivers in tele- and datacom modules.