A Study on the Characterization of Novel Silicon-Based Heterojunctions for Optically Controlled Microwave Switching

This paper proposes a structural silicon heterojunction photosensitive element with a simple form, low manufacturing cost, and efficient performance, which has a high-intensity photoelectric effect and a high frequency range of use. It can be applied as microwave switches to active frequency selective surfaces (AFSSs) to replace PIN diodes. Meanwhile, we explore the crucial role of pentacene/silicon heterojunction in the photoelectric conversion process. It is found that due to the inherent photovoltaic effect and the built-in electric field interaction between the two materials, the insertion loss of the heterojunction formed is reduced to 4.5 dB, which is 2.5 dB lower than that of the high-resistivity silicon wafer. In order to further reduce the insertion loss, the surface of the silicon wafer is etched and then heterojunction is prepared, which can further reduce insertion loss to within 2.5 dB, and the bandwidth difference between the presence and absence of pump excitation exceeds 10 dB extends to 12 GHz, indicating that the light collecting ability of structural silicon significantly enhances its photoelectric effect. The research results demonstrate the potential of using structural silicon heterojunctions in photoelectric devices, providing new technology for high-performance microwave switches and implementing optically controlled FSSs.