Nonlinearities in photodetectors

Many microwave and millimeter-wave photonic systems benefit with the use of high-current photodetectors. The use of high photocurrent increases the dynamic range and reduces the loss and noise figure in externally-modulated links and can decrease the complexity of high-bit-rate digital receivers. Increasing the output photocurrent also increases the output RF signal level possible directly from the photodetector. Whether space-charge or thermal effects ultimately limit the maximum photocurrent has yet to be determined, however, thermal effects are important, especially for the long term reliability of photodetectors. This talk will addresses some of the design issues and tradeoffs for high-current photodetectors