A high-efficiency high-power evanescently coupled UTC-photodiode

The effects of the multimode diluted waveguide on quantum efficiency and saturation behavior of the evanescently coupled uni-traveling carrier (UTC) photodiode structures are reported. Two kinds of evanescently coupled uni-traveling carrier photodiodes (EC-UTC-PD) were designed and characterized: one is a conventional EC-UTC-PD structure with a multimode diluted waveguide integrated with a UTC-PD; and the other is a compact EC-UTC-PD structure which fused the multimode diluted waveguide and the UTC-PD structure together. The effect of the absorption behavior of the photodiodes on the efficiency and saturation characteristics of the EC-UTC-PDs is analyzed using 3-D beam propagation method, and the results indicate that both the responsivity and saturation power of the compact EC-UTC-PD structures can be further improved by incorporating an optimized compact multimode diluted waveguide.