Photomixers fabricated on nitrogen-ion-implanted GaAs -: art. no. 041106

We report on fabrication and measurement of photomixers based on nitrogen-ion-implanted GaAs. We used energies of 500 keV, 700 keV, and 880 keV to implant N+ ions into GaAs substrates with an ion concentration of similar to 3x10(12) cm(-2). The resulting material exhibited 110 fs carrier lifetime due to implantation-induced defects. Our photomixers were fabricated as metal-semiconductor-metal devices, placed at the feed point of a broadband antenna. Optoelectronic measurements were performed in the wavelength range between 350 nm and 950 nm. In comparison to their counterparts (photomixers fabricated on low-temperature-grown GaAs) the N+-implanted GaAs photomixers exhibit improvements on both the output power and responsivity. A maximal responsivity of above 100 mA/W was achieved and we did not observe any dependence of the mixer cut-off frequency on the bias voltage. These characteristics make N+-implanted GaAs the material of choice for efficient optoelectronic photomixers. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.