Optical actuation of a micromechanical photodiode via the photovoltaic-piezoelectric effect

Radiation pressure and photothermal forces have been previously used to optically actuate micro/nanomechanical structures fabricated from semiconductor piezoelectric materials such as gallium arsenide (GaAs). In these materials, coupling of the photovoltaic and piezoelectric properties has not been fully explored and leads to a new type of optical actuation that we call the photovoltaic-piezoelectric effect (PVPZ). We demonstrate this effect by electrically measuring, via the direct piezoelectric effect, the optically induced strain in a novel torsional resonator. The micron-scale torsional resonator is fabricated from a lattice-matched single-crystal molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown GaAs photodiode heterostructure. We find that the strain depends on the product of the electro-optic responsivity and piezoelectric constant of GaAs. The photovoltaic-piezoelectric effect has important potential applications, such as in the development of configurable optical circuits, which can be used in neuromorphic photonic chips, processing of big data with deep learning and the development of quantum circuits.