Performance assessment of low temperature-grown GaAs-based optoelectronic devices dedicated to RF sampling applications

A large set of photoswitches (PSW) with different configurations is tested. Using the device with a shortest gap length leads to the generation of frequency harmonics while increasing RF input electrical power. Hence, the spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) is reduced when the RF power is increased up to 13 dBm. This results from an electrical nonlinear response which is partially due to carrier velocity saturation in LTG-GaAs. In accordance with the previous works, an electric field saturation of 14 kV/cm is measured.