Hyperdoped silicon photodetectors enable room-temperature computational SWIR imaging at 1550 nm

TL;DR

This paper presents a hyperdoped silicon photodetector capable of room-temperature SWIR imaging at 1550 nm, combining high detectivity, fast bandwidth, and multispectral imaging in a silicon-native platform.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel hyperdoped silicon photodetector with ultrafast laser heating that enables practical room-temperature SWIR imaging beyond silicon's bandgap.

Findings

Achieved a specific detectivity D* exceeding 10^9 Jones at 1550 nm.

Demonstrated a 65x63 pixel single-pixel imaging system at room temperature.

Supported simultaneous visible-light and SWIR imaging in a monolithic silicon device.

Abstract

Silicon's bandgap inherently restricts its photodetection to wavelengths below 1100 nm, necessitating the integration of costly III-V semiconductors for short-wave infrared applications. Hyperdoping silicon beyond the solid solubility limit offers a promising "silicon-native" alternative, yet achieving practical short-wave infrared applications at room temperature remains a formidable challenge. Here, we demonstrate a high-detectivity hyperdoped silicon photodetector enabling room-temperature computational short-wave infrared imaging beyond Si bandgap wavelength at {\lambda} = 1550 nm. By integrating an ultrafast laser heating process step to reduce the dark current while keeping high responsivity, we achieve a specific detectivity D^* exceeding 10^9 Jones for 1550 nm at room temperature working in a forward-biased, photoconductive mode. The improved detectivity, coupled with a 59.4 dB linear dynamic range and kHz-scale bandwidth, allows us to demonstrate a single-pixel imaging system that reconstructs 1550 nm scenes at 65x63 pixels without cryogenic cooling. Our devices simultaneously support visible-light imaging, offering a path toward monolithically integrated, multispectral Si-native optical sensors. These results establish ultrafast-laser hyperdoped silicon as a viable platform for low-cost, room-temperature, short-wave infrared photonics, bridging the gap between advanced materials science and practical computational imaging system.