Photomixing and photoconductor measurements on ErAs/InGaAs at 1.55 μm

We report here the fabrication and demonstration of the photomixers made from In0.53Ga0.47As epitaxial material lattice-matched to InP. The material consists of layers of ErAs nanoparticles separated by InGaAs and compensated with Be to reduce the photocarrier lifetime to picosecond levels and to increase the resistivity to ∼100 Ω cm. Interdigitated-electrode and planar-antenna structures were fabricated by e-beam lithography and tested for dc electrical characteristics, 1.55-μm optical responsivity, and difference-frequency photomixing. The measured responsivity of 8 mA/W and photomixer output of >0.1 μW beyond 100 GHz are already comparable to GaAs photomixers and suggest that coherent THz generation is now feasible using the abundant 1.55-μm-semiconductor-laser and optical-fiber technologies.