Ge(0.6)Si(0.4) Rib waveguide avalanche photodetectors for 1. 3 micron operation.

Performance of strained layer superlattice Ge(0.6)Si(0.4) waveguide avalanche photodetectors is evaluated for optical fiber applications at 1.3microns. These devices are grown on Si substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Waveguiding is accomplished by means of a 1.5-1.8micron thick Si rib waveguide which provides an effective index step of deltan = 8 x 10(-3). The detector response bandwidth exceeds 8 GHz at a gain of 6. A receiver sensitivity of n(mean)p = 29.4 dBm has been obtained at the data rate of 800 Mb/s with the corresponding error free transmission over 45 km of single mode fiber.