A light reception element and an electronic apparatus in which leakage current can be reduced to decrease current consumption are provided. The light reception element includes a pixel array section. The pixels each include two taps that detect an electric charge obtained through photoelectric conversion by a photoelectric conversion section. A flat region in each pixel, except the two taps and a pixel transistor region, includes a tap peripheral region and a pixel transistor neighboring region. In the tap peripheral region, an embedded oxide film is formed on a surface opposite to a light incident surface of a substrate, and a first semiconductor region is formed on the light incident surface side of the embedded oxide film. In the pixel transistor neighboring region, a second semiconductor region is formed. The present technology is applicable to a light reception element that carries out ranging, for example.

An integrated optical sensor is formed by a pinned photodiode. A semiconductor substrate includes a first semiconductor region having a first type of conductivity located between a second semiconductor region having a second type of conductivity opposite to the first type one and a third semiconductor region having the second type of conductivity. The third semiconductor region is thicker, less doped and located deeper in the substrate than the second semiconductor region. The third semiconductor region includes both silicon and germanium. In one implementation, the germanium within the third semiconductor region has at least one concentration gradient. In another implementation, the germanium concentration within the third semiconductor region is substantially constant.

In an edge incident type semiconductor light receiving device that reflects light incident parallel to the main surface of the semiconductor substrate opaque to the incident light to the light receiving section on the main surface side, a light guide section is formed to expose the light receiving section along the light incident direction from the light incident side end of the semiconductor substrate, and in order to guide the light incident on the light guide section to the light receiving section, a light reflection section having a given crossing angle with the main surface is provided at the end of the light guide section in the light incident direction.

A dynamic photodiode detector or detector array having a light absorbing region of doped semiconductor material for absorbing photons. Electrons or holes generated by photon absorption are detected with a construction of oppositely heavily doped anode and cathode regions and a heavily doped ground region of the same doping type as the anode region. Photon detection involves switching the device from reverse bias to forward bias to create a depletion region enclosing the anode region. When a photon is then absorbed the electron or hole thereby generated drifts under the electric field induced by the biasing to the depletion region where it causes the anode-to-ground current to increase. Furthermore, the detector is configured such that anode-to-cathode current starts to flow once a threshold number of electrons or holes reaches the depletion region, where the threshold may be one to provide single photon detection.

An embodiment method of manufacturing an avalanche diode includes forming a first trench in a substrate material, filling the first trench with a first material that comprises a dopant, and causing the dopant to diffuse from the first trench to form part of a PN junction. An avalanche diode array can be formed to include a number of the avalanche diodes.

The present invention provides a transmission guided-mode resonant grating integrated spectroscopy device (transmission GMRG integrated spectroscopy device) characterized by comprising, disposed in this order on an optical detector array in which a plurality of diodes are mounted on a substrate made of a semiconductor: a transparent spacer layer; a waveguide layer; a transparent buffer layer provided as desired; a transmission metallic grating layer having a thickness causing surface plasmon; and a transparent protection film layer which is provided as desired.

An optically gated transistor (OGT) device that may be used as a selector device for one or more variable resistive memory devices. The OGT device isolates the one or more variable resistive memory devices when the OGT is not optically activated. The amount of current conducted by the OGT device is dependent on an intensity of light optically applied to the OGT device. The OGT device includes alternating layers of germanium selenide (GeSe) and GeSe plus an additional element deposited on a substrate. The OGT device includes only two electrodes connected to the alternating layers deposited on the substrate. The OGT device may generate an amplified electrical signal with respect to the magnitude of a received optical signal. The OGT device may be used to generate an optical signal having a different wavelength than the wavelength of a received optical signal.

A semiconductor photodiode which functions in a wide band range up to medium wave infrared and far wavelengths in addition to visible region and near infrared includes: a light absorber region in micro structure which can provide light absorbance upon being roughened by laser; a first electrical lower contact coated with metal materials such as aluminium (Al), silver (Ag); a silicon which consists of crystalline silicon (c-Si); a second electrical lower contact which is coated with metal materials such as aluminium (Al), silver (Ag); a chalcogen doped hyper-filled silicone region which is obtained as a result of doping by pulse laser to the silicone region implanted by chalcogen elements; and upper electrical contact parts which are coated generally in the thickness range of 10 nm-1000 nm by using two-layered alloys with aluminium (Al)—(Al)-silver (Ag), two-layered alloys with titanium (Ti)-gold (Au), three-layered alloys with Ti-Platinum(Pt)—Au—Ag or three-layered alloys with Ti-lead(Pb)—Ag.

A dynamic photodiode detector or detector array having a light absorbing region of doped semiconductor material for absorbing photons. Electrons or holes generated by photon absorption are detected with a construction of oppositely heavily doped anode and cathode regions and a heavily doped ground region of the same doping type as the anode region. Photon detection involves switching the device from reverse bias to forward bias to create a depletion region enclosing the anode region. When a photon is then absorbed the electron or hole thereby generated drifts under the electric field induced by the biasing to the depletion region where it causes the anode-to-ground current to increase. Furthermore, the detector is configured such that anode-to-cathode current starts to flow once a threshold number of electrons or holes reaches the depletion region, where the threshold may be one to provide single photon detection.

A photodetector comprising an optical waveguide structure comprising at least three stripes spaced from one another such that a slot is present between each two adjacent stripes of the at least three stripes. A graphene absorption layer is provided over or underneath the at least three stripes. There is an electrode for each stripe, over or underneath the graphene absorption layer. The photodetector is configured such that two adjacent electrodes are biased using opposite polarities to create a p-n junction effect in a portion of the graphene absorption layer. In particular the portion of the graphene absorption layer is located over or underneath each respective slot between said each two adjacent stripes.