Pockel's effect and optical rectification in (111)-cut near-intrinsic silicon crystals

Pockel's effect and optical rectification are demonstrated in the charge space region of a (111)-cut near-intrinsic silicon crystal by the use of a planar metal-insulator-semiconductor structure. The results show that both Pockel's effect and optical rectification are so considerable that these effects should be taken into account for designing silicon-based photonic devices. The anisotropy of optical rectification is measured too, and experimental results are in good accordance with the theoretical analysis. These effects can also be used as a tool to investigate the properties of the charge space region of silicon devices in future. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.