Photoresponse of silicon with asymmetric area contacts

We report on high performance metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photosensors based on asymmetric metal pad areas. The reported devices require a single-step metal deposition, and exhibit large photo response even under zero-bias. Moreover the devices offer fast and stable light switching behavior. Device fabrication and electrical characterization results are presented that are further analyzed with TCAD modeling and simulation. Device simulations show that contact asymmetry along with surface recombination and barrier lowering plays an important role in the MSM I-V characteristics.