A photodiode for detection within molecular diagnostics

A photodiode (200), for instance a PN or a PIN photodiode, is disclosed. The photodiode receives incident radiation having first and second spectral distributions, where the first spectral distribution is spectrally shifted from the second spectral distribution. The photodiode has a first semiconductor layer (211) capable of absorbing incident radiation (231) having a first spectral distribution without generating a photocurrent, while simultaneously transmitting incident radiation having a second spectral distribution to the intrinsic layer (212) for generating a photocurrent (213). The photodiode may be used in connection with detecting the presence of target molecules that has been labeled with labeling agents, such as fluorophores or quantum dots. The labeling agents are characterized by the Stokes shift and, therefore, they emit fluorescent radiation having the second spectral distribution that is spectrally shifted from the illumination radiation having the first spectral distribution.