Abstract

Low temperature molecular beam epitaxial (LT-MBE) growth of III-V compound semiconductors offers a unique approach for obtaining sub-picosecond photoconductive response in these materials. We report the results on both InP based and GaAs based material systems. Picosecond electrical pulses have been generated mostly using amorphous or damaged photoconducting materials like GaAs, SOS, InP etc. Sub-picosecond response has been demonstrated in a few of these materials with fairly good responsivity^1,2. Integration of these photoconductive switches with other high speed III-V compound semiconductor devices for high speed testing applications, is not easy. LT-MBE epitaxial layers included as buffer layers to enhance device performance³ also make direct integration of photoconductive switches very straightforward.

© 1990 Optical Society of America