Microwave On/Off Ratio Enhancement of GaAs Photoconductive Switches at Nanometer Scale

This paper reports on performances enhancement of photoconductive switches in term of On/Off ratio and insertion losses. The optimization parameters on which the research has been focused are gap dimensions reduction to nanometer scale. The device characterization results up to a microwave frequency of 40 GHz and under CW illumination at a wavelength of 800 nm are presented. On/Off ratio reveals a value of 13 dB at 20 GHz under 100 mW optical power.