Dispersion dependence of two-photon absorption transition on frequency in Si PIN photodetector

The variation of two-photon absorption (TPA) coefficient \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) of Si excited at difference photon energy was investigated. The TPA coefficient was measured by using a picosecond pulsed laser with the wavelength could be tuned in a wide photon-energy range. An equivalent RC circuit model was adapted to derive the TPA coefficient \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) . The results showed that \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) varied from \(4.2 \times 10^{-4}\) to \(1.17 \times 10^{-3 }\)  cm/GW in the transparent wavelength region \(1.80<\lambda <1.36\,\upmu \) m of Si. The increasing tendency of \(\beta _{\mathrm{TPA}} (\omega )\) with the incident photon energy can be qualitatively interpreted as the photon energy increases from \(E_{\mathrm{ig}}/2\) to nearly \(E_{\mathrm{ig}}\) , the electrons excited from the valance band find an increasing availability of conduction band states. Comparing with the high-energy side transitions, the TPA coefficient in low-energy side is about 10 times too small. This can be attributed that the TPA transition in low-energy side is the process of photon-assisted electron transitions from valence to conduction band occurring between different points in k-space, while is direct transition in high-energy side.