A Novel Optoelectronic Thyristor for Picosecond High Power Switching Applications (REU Supplement)

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A new three terminal device, double heterostructure optoelectronic thyristor (DHOET), will be investigated for picosecond high power switching and for generating short laser pulse with high output power. The device is developed from concepts of Si thyristors and double heterostructure (DH) lasers and will be based on GaInAsP/InP heterostructures grown by liquid phase epitaxy. While numerous research works have been reported about Si based thyristors, little has been done as A1GaAs/GaAs and no work has been reported on GaInAsP/InP based thyristors. The main thrust of this proposed study is to understand the effects of band discontinuities ( Ec, Ev) on the turn-on and turn-off speed of the proposed DHOETs and to explore their unique features as compared to Si thyristors including: (i) much higher device speed, (ii) higher device operating temperature, (iii) higher radiation resistance, and (iv) excellent optical triggering sensitivity with InP as the optical window. This research may open up a practically important new research area of III- V-DHOETs for the applications of high speed pulsed power switching and the generation of subnanosecond electrical and optical high power pulses. Research performed in this project is expected to advance our understanding of heterostructures and will have many other important applications such as the potential of fabricating novel optical amplifiers.