DC- and Microwave-Biased Extrinsic GaAs Photoconductors

The theoretical performance of dc- and microwave-biased extrinsic GaAs photoconductors is presented. The variables are the electrical bandwidth (1 kHz to 10 MHz) and the background photon irradiance (10/sup 8/ to 10/sup16/ ph/s/spl dot/cm/sup 2/). Experimental results taken from the literature are compared to the theoretical values. It is concluded that the theoretical performance of a microwave-biased extrinsic GaAs photoconductor exceeds that of its dc-biased counterpart, particularly at wide electrical bandwidths and / or low backgrounds.