Silicon fiber with p-n junction

Abstract

In this study, we fabricated a p-n junction in a fiber with a phosphorous doped silicon core and fused silica cladding. The fibers were fabricated via a hybrid process of the core-suction and melt-draw techniques and maintained overall diameters ranging from 200 to 900 μm and core diameters of 20–800 μm. The p-n junction was formed by doping the fiber with boron and confirmed via the current-voltage characteristic. The demonstration of a p-n junction in a melt-drawn silicon core fiber paves the way for the seamless integration of optical and electronic devices in fibers.

Semiconductor core fibres: materials science in a bottle

“…Molten core fibres have been explored for fabrication of p-n diodes 151 and solar cells 76 , 152 . Applications based on the electrical properties are increasing, particularly for sensors 153 – 155 .…”

Silicon optical fibres – past, present, and future

“…More recently the challenge of obtaining small, high purity cores that are more typical for fibre geometries has been addressed via the incorporation of interfacial modifiers [16]. Though not as easily formed as with HPCVD, in-fibre p-n junctions have also been realized in molten core derived fibres [23]. Figure 2 shows the year-on-year progress in the development of both the HPCVD and molten core silicon core fibres in terms of their attenuation losses in the telecom band [6][7][8]13,16,[24][25][26][27].…”

A review of materials engineering in silicon-based optical fibres

“…There have been a number of successful attempts to produce optical detectors in the silicon optical fibre format [54,55], however, the wavelengths that can be detected are limited to those of traditional silicon detectors (0.3 µm to 1.1 µm), thus precluding their use for telecoms applications. Post-processing techniques, in particular laser processing, present the intriguing possibility of extending this detection range.…”