Abstract

A photoconductive switch is a simple device (shown in Fig. 1) with many applications.¹ As indicated by Auston,¹ a rigorous analysis of transient processes in photoconductors is a difficult task. However, we feel that the transmission lines theory used by Auston is not reliable in the picosecond range, and our approach to this problem is to use the time-do-main finite-difference method² to solve time-varying Maxwell’s equations and to use the ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) technique³ to simulate carrier-transport phenomena in photoconductors. They can then be combined together to consider the interactions between electromagnetic fields and carrier transport.

© 1990 Optical Society of America