Electrical pulse compression using photoconductive zinc selenide opening switches

Author

Cho, Pak S. ; Goldhar, Julius ; Lee, Chi H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Maryland Univ., College Park, MD, USA

Volume

6

Issue

5

fYear

1994

fDate

5/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

642

Lastpage

644

Abstract

Electrical pulse compression and power gain were observed in an inductive energy storage pulsed power circuit with a photoconductive polycrystalline ZnSe opening switch. The ZnSe opening switch was optically activated by a specially tailored laser pulse operated at the blue-green region. A maximum voltage gain of 8 and a power gain of 64 was obtained with a 509 V DC bias voltage. We observed in the ZnSe opening switch a recoverable breakdown behavior similar to "lock-on" in GaAs. A peak output voltage of 8.9 kV was obtained from a 1 mm thick switch with 5 kV DC bias.<>

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; inductive energy storage; optical switches; photoconducting devices; semiconductor switches; zinc compounds; 5 kV; 500 V; 8.9 kV; DC bias voltage; ZnSe; blue-green region; electrical pulse compression; inductive energy storage pulsed power circuit; laser pulse; maximum voltage gain; optically activated; peak output voltage; photoconductive opening switches; polycrystalline; power gain; recoverable breakdown behavior; Energy storage; Optical pulse compression; Optical pulses; Optical switches; Photoconducting devices; Photoconductivity; Pulse circuits; Pulse compression methods; Voltage; Zinc compounds;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.285566

Filename

285566