Fast and Sensitive Two-Terminal Double-Heterojunction Optical Thyristors

A new Two-Terminal Double-Heterojunction Optical Thyristor is presented, that combines good optical sensitivity and fast turn-off. This is obtained by bandgap and doping engineering of the PnpN structure: the optical sensitivity is achieved by using a low doping for the outer, wide bandgap, thyristor layers; the fast turn-off, on the other hand, is obtained by adapting the doping levels and thicknesses of the inner thyristor layers such that the n-layer is punched through when a critical reverse bias is applied to the device. The optical sensitivity is 5 to 100 pJ, the turn-off time is RC-limited and typically less than 10 ns, the data transmission rate in differential configuration is at least 5×10⁴ bit/s. As the structure remains a two-terminal device, integration into large arrays - for massively parallel data transmission - is possible.