Miniaturized spectrometers have significant potential for portable applications such as consumer electronics, health care, and manufacturing. These applications demand low cost and high spectral resolution, and are best enabled by single-shot free-space-coupled spectrometers that also have sufficient spatial resolution. Here, we demonstrate an on-chip spectrometer that can satisfy all of these requirements. Our device uses arrays of photodetectors, each of which has a unique responsivity with rich spectral features. These responsivities are created by complex optical interference in photonic-crystal slabs positioned immediately on top of the photodetector pixels. The spectrometer is completely complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) compatible and can be mass produced at low cost.

Surface antireflection micro and nanostructures, normally formed by conventional reactive ion etching, offer advantages in photovoltaic and optoelectronic applications, including wider spectral wavelength ranges and acceptance angles. One challenge in incorporating these structures into devices is that optimal optical properties do not always translate into electrical performance due to surface damage, which significantly increases surface recombination. Here, we present a simple approach for fabricating antireflection structures, with self-passivated amorphous Ge (α-Ge) surfaces, on single crystalline Ge (c-Ge) surface using the inverse metal-assisted chemical etching technology (I-MacEtch). Vertical Schottky Ge photodiodes fabricated with surface structures involving arrays of pyramids or periodic nano-indentations show clear improvements not only in responsivity, due to enhanced optical absorption, but also in dark current. The dark current reduction is attributed to the Schottky barrier height increase and self-passivation effect of the i-MacEtch induced α-Ge layer formed on top of the c-Ge surface. The results demonstrated in this work show that MacEtch can be a viable technology for advanced light trapping and surface engineering in Ge and other semiconductor based optoelectronic devices.

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The interaction between two-dimensional (2D) materials and light is rather weak due to their ultrathin thickness. In order for these emerging 2D materials to achieve performances that are comparable to those of conventional optoelectronic devices, the light-material interaction must be significantly enhanced. An effective way to enhance the interaction is to use optical resonances. Efficient light absorption has been demonstrated in a single layer of graphene based on a variety of resonators. However, the bandwidth of the absorption enhancement is always narrow, which limits its application for optoelectronic devices. In order to broaden the enhancement of light-material interaction, here we propose a multiple-resonator approach based on nanostructured graphene. These nanostructures having different geometry support resonances at different frequencies. Owing to their deep subwavelength sizes, graphene resonators can be closely packed in space, resulting in a high optical density of states, which enables the broadband light absorption.