Measurements of InGaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector nonlinearities

Nonlinearity measurements of microwave-bandwidth InGaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors have been performed. The devices show nonlinear characteristics which are similar to p-i-n structures despite a less-uniform electric field within the absorbing region. The nonlinear response versus applied voltage, nonlinearity growth rate versus current, nonlinearity threshold due to high power, and 1-dB compression current measurements presented here are all comparable in magnitude to their p-i-n counterparts.