Modeling the high-speed switching of far-infrared radiation by photoionization in a semiconductor

Data from an earlier study [T. Vogel et al., Appl. Opt. 31, 329 (1992)] on the subnanosecond switching of 119-mu m radiation in high-resistivity silic on by pulsed UV laser radiation, is compared with a refined one-dimensional numerical multilayer model accounting for the generation, recombination, a nd diffusion of the free carriers on the resulting far-infrared optical pro perties of the silicon. The inclusion of recent measurements for carrier-de nsity and temperature-dependent transport parameters leads to improved agre ement between experiment and theory. [S0163-1829(99)03220-8].