Photodiodes: Principles and recent advances

Abstract

Fundamental principles, basic designing properties of Photodiodes and recent research developments.

Photodiodes are on the rise. In the past decade many efforts have been made to deliver cheaper, more flexible, and increasingly better performing photodiode devices. The demand for enhanced optoelectronics led to the development of new inorganic, organic, and hybrid materials. In this review we describe in detail the working principles, the characterization, fabrication (types and architectures) and major applications of photodiodes. Recent applications, mainly in imaging, sensing and healthcare are also presented.