GaAs Fabry-Perot cavity photoconductors: switching with picojoule optical pulses

摘要

It is shown that low-temperature-grown GaAs photoconductors using a Fabry-Pérot cavity are very efficient optical switches in comparison with planar photoconductors. A switching efficiency of about 60́ was measured with a pulse energy as low as 1.2 pJ and about 100́ efficiency is achieved with a pulse energy of 14.2 pJ. Efficient optical sampling of microwave signals is now achievable with a low power pulsed laser.