| That optoelectronics has and will continue to create revolutionary improvements in conventional electromagnetic applications is becoming evident. Being both an electrical and optical interconnect, the high speed photodetector is increasingly becoming a crucial element in optical high-bit-rate communication links, optical computing and data processing systems, optical measurement techniques, and many other new types of optoelectronics techniques.;With the advantages of high response speed, low noise, as well as the best integrability with FET's, the MSM photodetector appears to be the most promising optoelectronic interconnect from the high-bit-rate application and monolithic point of view. In this thesis, the primary characteristics of the MSM photodetector are studied, while the focus is laid on the transient state performances of the GaAs MSM photodetectors. A new type of the MSM photodetector with a GaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure has been implemented and studied. With this new structure, the device capacitance and operating bias are significantly reduced, the temporal response speed is improved by over 30% without degradation of the sensitivity. This new type of heterostructure MSM photodetector (HMSM) is believed to be the fastest photodetector ever reported of those with the similar photosensitive area. |
