The nonlinear photoresponse to a 1.56μm infrared continuous wave laser in semi-insulating （SI） galliu- marsenide （GaAs） is examined. The double-frequency absorption （DFA） is responsible for the nonlinear photoresponse based on the quadratic dependence of the photocurrent separately on the coupled optical power and bias voltage. The electric field-induced DFA remarkably affects the native DFA in SI GaAs. The surface electric field or the surface band-bending of SI GaAs significantly affects the magnitude variation of the Dhotocurrent and dark current
