The operational principles and performance of InP photoconductive switches are reviewed. The results suggest that these devices may be better suited for high-speed photodetection and signal processing applications than comparable Si or GaAs devices. The switches have a response time of -50 psec, an off-state impedance of 10 fF and 100 MΩ and an on-state impedance of 45 Ω for 40 pJ of incident energy. In a variety of experiments with cw mode-locked lasers, the switches have been used as fast optical pulse detectors, high-speed pulse-train generators and as wide-band analog samplers. In the latter application, a 70-MHz sine wave has been sampled at 275 MS/sec with 98% accuracy. Extension of this sampling application to analog-to-digital-conversion demultiplexing operation is proposed.

Date Published: 28 July 1981
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 0272, High Speed Photodetectors, (28 July 1981); doi: 10.1117/12.965693

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0272:
High Speed Photodetectors
Lou Tomasetta, Editor(s)