Optical plasma microelectronic devices

The vast majority of modern microelectronic devices rely on carriers within semiconductors due to their integrability. Therefore, the performance of these devices is limited due to natural semiconductor properties such as band gap and electron velocity. Replacing the semiconductor channel in conventional microelectronic devices with a gas plasma channel may scale their speed, wavelength, and power beyond what is available today. However, gas plasma generation, without applying high voltages, is quite challenging in a practical device. Here, we successfully generate an electro-optically triggered gas plasma channel to be used in practical microplasma devices. By using a special micro-scale meteasurface, the combination of DC and laser-induced gas ionizations control the conductivity of the plasma channel, enabling us to realize different electronic devices such as transistors, switches, and modulators. Optical plasma devices benefit from the advantages of plasma/vacuum electronic devices while preserving most of the integrablity of semiconductor-based devices.