Electrical characteristics of an optically controlled N-channelAlGaAs/GaAs/InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMT

Electrical characteristics of an n-channel Al_0.3Ga_0.7As/GaAs/In_0.13Ga_0.87 As pseudomorphic HEMT (PHEMT) with L_g=1 μm on GaAs are characterized under optical input (P_opt). Gate leakage and drain current have been analyzed as a function of V_GS, V _DS, and P_opt. We observed monotonically increasing gate leakage current due to the energy barrier lowering by the optically induced photovoltage, which means that gate input characteristics are significantly limited by the photovoltaic effect. However, we obtained a strong nonlinear photoresponsivity of the drain current, which is limited by the photoconductive effect. We also proposed a device model with an optically induced parasitic Al_0.3Ga_0.7As MESFET parallel to the In_0.13Ga_0.87As channel PHEMT for the physical mechanism in the drain current saturation under high optical input power