Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2013
In this paper we propose a new silicon nanowire photodetector model based on a single-electron transistor for single charge detection (photo-NWSET). In the first part of this work we present the two blocks of the device structure (reading and detection blocks). The presented model is consisting of two blocks capacitively coupled. The first SET (SET1) is supposed to read the charge whereas the detection block is represented by the nanowire (NW) system associated to an optical source. We modeled the NW by a series of seven islands separated by eight tunnel junctions (8TJs). In the second part of this work, we investigate the effects of photoexcitation on Id-Vg curves and we present results obtained on the output (photo-NWSET) characteristics after variation of power illumination and response time.