Investigation of the optical spot position on the performance of metal-semiconductor-metal structures: novel application

The effect of the optical spot position relative to the electrodes in metal -semiconductor-metal (MSM) structures has been studied. Theoretically, we h ave found that the I-V characteristic depends strongly on the position and the intensity of the optical spot. Besides being very sensitive to the opti cal spot position, at zero applied bias, the MSM can be used as a current s ource where the magnitude and the direction of the output current depend on the position and the intensity of the optical spot. Being a planar structu re with high signal-to-noise ratio makes the MSM a unique structure for the se types of applications. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.