ABSTRACT
Dopants in semiconductors have been gaining a revitalized role in
terms of functionalities after the observation of electron transport
through individual dopants. Among many possible applications, a
key research direction is toward dopant-based nanophotonics. In a simple scheme, an ionized dopant atom, for instance, a donor, can
work as a trap for one electron. The electron can originate from the
absorption of a photon and generation of an electron-hole pair in
the vicinity of the donor. Here, we will first briefly introduce the
basic phenomena for applications based on individual dopant atoms.
On these grounds, we will show results for integration of photon
detection with dopant atoms in silicon nanostructures, opening new
paths to atom-level optoelectronics.
