Reconfigurable plasmonic photodetector and fabrication method

The present invention discloses a radically-new design and fabrication concept of reconfigurable plasmonic metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors for near-infrared (NIR) and visible spectrum, by exploiting the optical contrast properties in optical phase-change-materials (OPCM) chalcogenides like Sb2S3, Sb2Se3 and Sb2SxSe3-x, when reversibly switching from amorphous to (poly)crystalline structural state. Embodiments are related to reconfigurable chalcogenides-based plasmonic interdigitated hot electron metal-semiconductor-metal Schottky photodetectors able to perform hopping between different NIR telecom bands, like from C band to O band, or from U band to O band, when the OPCM material switches from polycrystalline to amorphous state. In the same reconfigurability idea, for example, the plasmonic photodetectors for visible spectrum are able to switch from detecting orange color to green (in case of Sb2S3) or blue color (in case of Sb2SxSe3-x) when the chalcogenide active OPCM material is switched from polycrystalline state to morphous. Moreover, other embodiments show that depending on application requirement, for a specific interdigitated design of the plasmonic interdigitated Schottky photodetectors one can obtain an ultrawideband multi-polarization photodetection of NIR or VIZ electromagnetic radiation.

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