Optical AND operation in n-AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction field effect transistor

Abstract

The near-infrared photoresponses of an n-AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction field-effect transistor (FET) were investigated for the irradiation of two lights: (A) a laser beam with the energy above the Schottky-barrier which uniformly illuminates the gate region and (B) a laser beam with the energy above the GaAs bandgap which locally illuminates the ungate region. We measured a lateral photocurrent in the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel at the n-AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction and found that the FET acts as an optical AND element; the lateral photocurrent is generated only when both the light A and B simultaneously illuminate the FET. The lateral current flows from left to right when the left side of the FET is illuminated with the light B, while the right side irradiation leads to the current from right to left. The experimental findings are well explained by a theory based on the current-continuity equation, where the lateral current in the 2DEG channel is driven by an asymmetric electron transfer resulting from the simultaneous irradiation of the light A and B.