Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses: Doctorates and Masters Theses 2013 Surface plasmons for enhanced metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors Ayman A. Karar Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses Part of the Semiconductor and Optical Materials Commons Recommended Citation Karar, A. A. (2013). Surface plasmons for enhanced metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/593 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/593 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. SURFACE PLASMONS FOR ENHANCED METAL -SEMICONDUCTOR-METAL PHOTODETECTORS BY AYMAN A. A. KARAR A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT ELECTRON SSSCIENCESCIENCE RRRESEARCHRESEARCH IIINSTITUTE School of Engineering The Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science Edith Cowan University Principal Supervisor: Prof. Kamal E.E.E. Alameh Electron Science Research Institute (ESRI), Edith Cowan University 2012012013201 333 USE OF THESIS The Use of Thesis statement is not included in this version of the thesis. Declaration I certify that this thesis does not, to the best of my knowledge and belief: (i) incorporate without acknowledgment any material previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any institution of higher education. (ii) contain any material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text; or (iii) contain any defamatory material. I also grant permission for the Library at Edith Cowan University to make duplicate copies of my thesis as required. Signature: Ayman KARAR Date: 25 /07/2013 ii Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Kamal Alameh, who was there as a lighthouse to watch that I have chosen the safe path towards the successful ending of the project. Thank you for making sure I learned how to act scientifically and gave me all the resources, help, and attention that I needed. Your efforts to explain things clearly and simply, made this project fun for me. His enthusiasm for science and its understanding, and his enormous wealth of ideas never ceases to amaze me. I would also like to thank him for being an open person to ideas, and for encouraging and helping me to shape my interest and ideas. I learned from him, as a person with a capability of reading between lines, that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it “ happiness comes from inside”. Special thanks to Prof. Yong-Tak Lee, in the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), for give me the chance to visit his group and spend time in the cleanroom. The time I spent in GIST was very intense and of great benefit to my knowledge. One big thank to Dr. Chee Leong Tan for helping with devices fabrication and for numerous discussions regarding simulation and experimental matters. Without you this project will never see the light. I am also thankful to Dr. Fouad Karouta for his assistance in plasma and wet etching. I also express my thanks to Dr. Narottam Das for great helping and discussion at the beginning of this project. Daily interactions among researchers contribute substantially to research results, professional maturity, and personal satisfaction. Many fruits of interactions I picked with Dr. Mikhail Vasiliev and Dr. Sreten Askraba. I will always remember, discussions about the boarding between winning the noble price and become a rich man. Thanks to. Dr. Feng Xiao helped me get started on the optical bench and for always arguing about the communist and capitalist. Thanks are also due to Dr. Hoang Nguyen for always opening his electronic workshop and offering helps. I would like also to thank the new researchers Dr. Baofu Ding and Mr. Devendra Maury for great help, discussion and jokes. I also indebted to Mrs. Linda Arthur for her help with editing my thesis and her great capacity to accept and tolerate our messy world in my first three years. I would also like to express my gratitude for our administration team Bev, Tiella and Paul because of their great help going through all administration stuff. I will always consider them as a part of our researcher teams. iii I am particularly thankful to my friends and office mates: Kavitha, Valentina, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam, Ahmed, David, Stefan, Nazme, Ali, Yamna, Ramzi and Praveen. Kavitha and Vale: I cherish our friendships and experiences together far above any other aspect of my time at ESRI. The rest: I am happy that you all shared your time and efforts with me. I also will not forget to thank Dr. Budi and Dr. Arie for valuable discussions in various topics. I specially value the assistance and friendship of my friend and house mate Haithem. I still remember when we have cooked our first meal together. We both know how we have worked hard to make all of this happen! There are also a number of people who do not work with me but have been friends for all this years in Perth. I would like to thank them for their support and great days: Dr. Elsamaul , Dr. Moahmed and his little family, Elsadig, Ashraf and his family. I apologize to others that I didn’t mentioned and who should also be here. A number of friends in my home town did not lose sight of me: Abazer, Elfatih, Tarig and Dr. Elmuez and his family. Thank you for repeatedly encouraged me by e-mail or asking me directly. I am particularly thankful to my parents and grandmother for their continuous support in every moment of my life, right from the childhood to this date. For everything you did, for all the suggestions, prayers and love. You are really special to me! I am thankful to my elder brother Ehab and his wife and lovely three kids; Hind, Rayan, Mohammed and Ahmed, My younger brothers Ahmed, Amjed and his wife and son: Maison and Osama, Ashraf, Asaad, my sister Tasnim and her husband and son: Khalid and Ahmed. All of you, I really appreciate your exceptional love, help and support throughout my life. I would also like to give my deepest gratitude and love to my father and mother-in-law and their family, for being there and providing support whenever we needed it. Of course I will not forget to thanks all my family and friends who I did not mention here for their pray and support. Finally and not least of course my beautiful wife Ayaat, who makes everything in my life shine brighter, and has made it all worthwhile. I am every day more convinced that I got a precious and dearest friend for a life also. The paramount help and support she gave me can be reflected in only a few words of her: “Alhamdo-LelAlah (Thanks God) that you are finishing”. To my lovely son Iyad, who light the fire of happiness in my life. I have learnt from him, that there's nothing sweeter than sleeping with your babies and feeling their breath on your cheeks. iv Abstract Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) are quantized charge density oscillations that occur when a photon couples to the free electron gas of the metal at the interface between a metal and a dielectric. The extraordinary properties of SPP allow for sub-diffraction limit waveguiding and localized field enhancement. The emerging field of surface plasmonics has applied SPP coupling to a number of new and interesting applications, such as: Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), super lenses, nano-scale optical circuits, optical filters and SPP enhanced photodetectors. In the past decade, there have been several experimental and theoretical research and development activities which reported on the extraordinary optical transmission through sub- wavelength metallic apertures as well as through periodic metal grating structures. The use of SPP for light absorption enhancement using sub-wavelength metal gratings promises an increased enhancement in light collection efficiency of photovoltaic devices. A sub- wavelength plasmonic nanostructure grating interacts strongly with the incident light and potentially traps it inside the subsurface region of semiconductor substrates. Among all photodetectors, the Metal-Semiconductor-Metal photodetector (MSM-PD) is the simplest structure. Moreover, due to the lateral geometry of the MSM-PDs, the capacitance of an MSM-PD is much lower than capacitances of p-i-n PDs and Avalanche PDs, making its response time in the range of a few tens of picoseconds for nano-scale spacing between the electrode fingers. These features of simple fabrication and high speed make MSM-PDs attractive and essential devices for high-speed optical interconnects, high- sensitivity optical samplers and ultra-wide bandwidth optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC) receivers for fibre optic communication systems.