Oxygen implantation in ZnTe may be used to obtain optical absorption at wavelengths higher than 0.55 &mgr;m, which is the normal absorption edge in this compound semiconductor. Optical waveguides obtained by boron implantation in this material are associated with detectors using that extrinsic absorption effect in the presence of a Schottky barrier depletion layer. The responsivity of the photodetector is about 5×10−2A/W at 0.61 &mgr;m and the rise time is less than 3 ns.