Photon-activated charge domain in high-gain photoconductive switches

We report our experimental observation of charge domain oscillation in semi-insulating GaAs photocon-ductive semiconductor switches (PCSSs). The high-gain PCSS is intrinsically a photon-activated charge domain device. It is the photon-activated carriers that satisfy the requirement of charge domain formation on carrier concentration and device length product of 1012 cm-2. We also show that, because of the repeated process of domain formation, the domain travels with a compromised speed of electron saturation velocity and the speed of light. As a result, the transit time of charge domains in PCSS is much shorter than that of traditional Gunn domains.