Optical control and tuning of thermal-piezoresistive self-sustained oscillators

The ability to frequency tune and provide on/off control of electrically driven thermal-piezoresistive self-sustained oscillators through the application of HeNe (632 nm wavelength) laser illumination to devices is reported in this work. Photoexcitation of charge carriers is presented as the physical mechanism to control the piezoresistive coefficient and electrical resistivity enabling these abilities. The results are significant in that they offer a novel means to directly control the electronic output of RF oscillators through photonics.