Pr oceed in gs o f t he XXX I I n t ern at io n al Sch oo l o f Sem icond uct i ng Co m p ou n ds, Ja szo wi ec 200 2 Sem i con d u cto r M ate ria l s for Ultrafas t P h otos w itch es J.-L. C out az L abo rato r y of M i crowa ves an d C hara cteri zati on , L A HC | Uni versi ty of Savo i e 73 376 Le Bo ur get du La c Cedex, Fra nce T h is pap er gives a revie w of semi conductor materia ls that are used to fabricate ultraf ast photosw itches . T he opto electrica l resp onse of the switches is Ùrst describ ed w ith simple mo dels, from which the material re quirements are deduced. T he basic princip les of the required material prop erties | ultrashort free carrier lif etime and high mobili t y, high dar k resistivi ty, and high Ùeld breakdow n | are explaine d. T hen, the most popular ultraf ast semiconductors are listed, together with their characteristics. A special emphasis is put on low -temp erature grow n GaA s. Finall y , two applicati on s of these ultraf ast materials are presented, namely antennae for terahert z radiation and all-opti cal nonlin ear devices. PAC S numb ers: 85.60.{q, 85. 60. Dw , 72.20. {i, 72. 40. + w , 72. 80. Ey, 42.65. Re
I n t r o d u ct io nThe l aser exhi bi ts tw o rem ar kable features, among others, nam ely i ts l i ght b eam coherence and the p ossibi l ity o f pro duci ng very short l i ght pul ses.The coherence m akes the l aser l ig ht obeyi ng to the Po isson stati sti cs, l eadi ng to weak no ise i n the tra nsm i ssion of i nf orm atio n thro ug h opti cal m eans. Thi s consti tutes one of the bases of opti cal com muni catio ns, al l owi ng the i nsta l l ati on of l ong -di stance system s. Sho rt l i ght pul ses are used as bi ts of i nf orm atio n i n such system s. No wadays, sub-nano second l i ght pul ses comm onl y pro pa gate i n opti cal Ùbers, as top-l evel comm ercial systems are runni ng at 10{ 40 G bi t / s. In com p eti ti on wi th wa velength m ulti pl exing system s tha t al rea dy reach data ra tes of several Tbi t/ s [1], i t i s exp ected tha t ti me-multi plexi ng systems wi l l app ear i n a close future, carryi ng short pul ses corresp ondi ng to tra nsm ission ra tes hi gher tha n 100 G bi t/ s. Thi s re qui res detecto rs of l i ght who se band wi dth exceeds 100 G Hz, i .e. whose ti me response is of the order of a f ew pi coseconds. Beside the tel ecomm uni catio n dom ai n, whi ch certa i nl y consti tutes the mai n m ark et for such a techno l ogy, ul tra fast pho to detecto rs (4 95) 496 J .-L. Cout az are empl oyed i n man y areas of techno l ogy and physi cs, l i ke hi gh speed electro ni cs, tri ggeri ng of electro ni cs circui ts, opti cal l y-fed pha se-arra y ra dar antenna e, generati on of short electri cal events, antenna e for tera hertz spectro scopy .T oday, the most e£ cient l ight-electri city converters are semi conducto r (SC) devi ces. The absorpti on of i ncom i ng pho to ns exci tes electro ns fro m the val ence ba nd or fro m tra ps to the conducti on ba nd. Thi s pheno menon Ùrst creates a p opul ati o n of di p o...