Integration of Black Phosphorus Photoconductors with Lithium Niobate on Insulator Photonics

Photodetectors formed with layered two-dimensional (2D) materials have shown significant potential for integration with photonic circuits, offering fast, high responsivity and low noise detection over a broad range of optical wavelengths. However, only preliminary trials of this concept have been performed on emerging photonics platforms such as lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI). In this study, a novel architecture consisting of ≈15 nm thick layered black phosphorus (bP) photoconductors draped over LNOI waveguides is demonstrated. The performance of these detectors is studied across the telecom bands at room temperature, and a high extrinsic responsivity of 148 mA W−1 is measured at λ = 1550 nm under low bias conditions (VDS = 0.3 V). The spectral response of the detectors is broad allowing the response of other photonic components, such as fiber-to-chip grating couplers, to be characterized in situ, without need to out-couple the light. Finally, the speed of the bP detectors is found to be beyond our instrumentation, setting 100 ns as an upper-limit rise/fall time, with the actual speed of the bP detector likely to be much faster.