Recently a project was posted for a high speed photodetector. Part of that project was to develop a program that takes the frequency response of a light impulse. My thought is to create a program that can perform these tasks, including an impulse response for any structure.

Generic Light Frequency Response Simulator Program in ATLAS TCAD

The first part of the program should include all the particulars of the structure that is being simulated:

go atlas

[define mesh]

[define structure]

[define electrodes]

[define materials]

Then, the beam is defined. x.origin and y.origin describes from where the beam is originating on the 2D x-y plane. The angle shown of 270 degrees means that the beam will be facing upwards. One may think of this angle as starting on the right hand sixe of the x-y coordinate plane and moves clockwise. The wavelength is the optical wavelength of the beam and the window defines how wide the beam will be.

beam num=1 x.origin=0 y.origin=5 angle=270 wavelength=1550 min.window=-15 max.window=15

The program now should run an initial solution and set the conditions (such as if a voltage is applied to a contact) for the frequency response.

METHOD HALFIMPL

solve init
outf = lightpulse_frequencyresponse.str
LOG lightpulse_frequencyresponse.log

[simulation conditions such as applied voltage]

LOG off

Now the optical pulse is is simulated as follows:

LOG outf=transient.log
SOLVE B1=1.0 RAMPTIME=1E-9 TSTOP=1E-9 TSTEP=1E-12
SOLVE B1=0.0 RAMPTIME=1E-9 TSTOP=20E-9 TSTEP=1E-12

tonyplot transient.log

outf=lightpulse_frequencyresponse.str master onefile
log off

The optical pulse “transient.log” is simulated using Tonyplot at the end of the program. It is a good idea to separate transient plots from frequency plots to ensure that these parameters may be chosen in Tonyplot. Tonyplot does not give the option to use a parameter if it is not the object that is being solved before saving the .log file.

log outf=frequencyplot.log
FOURIER INFILE=transient.log OUTFILE=frequencyplot.log T.START=0 T.STOP=20E-9 INTERPOLATE
tonyplot frequencyplot.log
log off

output band.param ramptime TRANS.ANALY photogen opt.intens con.band val.band e.mobility h.mobility band.param photogen opt.intens recomb u.srh u.aug u.rad flowlines

save outf=lightpulse_frequencyresponse.str
tonyplot lightpulse_frequencyresponse.str

quit

Now you can focus on the structure and mesh for a light impulse frequency response. Note that adjustments may be warranted on the light impulse and beam.

And so, here is a structure simulation that could be done easily using the process above.