High-performance flexible waveguide-integrated photodetectors

Mechanically flexible photonic devices are essential building blocks for novel bio-integrated optoelectronic systems, wearable sensors, and flexible consumer electronics. Here we describe the design and experimental demonstration of high-performance flexible semiconductor nanomembrane photodetectors integrated with single-mode chalcogenide glass waveguides. Through a combination of a waveguide-integrated architecture to enhance light-matter interactions and mechanical engineering of multilayer configurations to suppress strains, the detector devices exhibit record optical and mechanical performance. The devices feature a noise equivalent power as low as 0.02 pW·Hz½, a linear dynamic range exceeding 70 dB, and a 3-dB bandwidth of 1.4 GHz, all measured at 1530 nm wavelength. The devices withstand 1,000 bending cycles at submillimeter radius without degradation in their optoelectronic responses. These metrics represent significant improvements over state-of-the-art flexible photodetectors.