A Total Internal Reflection Photoconductive Switch

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel illumination technique for extrinsic photoconductive switches based on the creation of a total internal reflection trap to increase the optical path length. The optimal geometry is a square substrate illuminated from one of the corners along the diagonal, ensuring that the total internal reflection condition is maintained after any reflection off the device lateral sides. The optical absorption uniformity throughout the device bulk was improved by designing the entry window to have a cylindrical shape and by using a square core optical fiber as an illumination source. The concept is experimentally validated on a vanadium-doped silicon carbide device that shows approximately four-fold improvement in responsivity compared to normal illumination.