Operation of Pulse-Charged Spark Gap Triggered by GaAs Photoconductive Semiconductor Switch

Author

Xu, Ming ; Shi, Wei ; Hou, Lei ; Ji, WeiLi ; Zhang, Lin ; Dai, Huiying

Author_Institution

Res. Center for Ultrafast Photoelectric Technol., Xi´´an Univ. of Technol., Xi´´an, China

Volume

38

Issue

10

fYear

2010

Firstpage

2888

Lastpage

2893

Abstract

The operation of a pulse-charged spark gap that is triggered by gallium arsenide (GaAs) photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSSs) was investigated. By measuring the currents with the streamer discharge, we analyzed the mechanisms of breakdown between the semi-insulating GaAs PCSS and the spark gap. Two similar combination setups were studied by different gap structures. It was shown that the PCSS was a good candidate for generating high current (as high as 5.6 kA) or ultrafast pulse with 220-ps rise time and 400-ps full-width at half-maximum accompanied with good reproducibilities of waveforms.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; discharges (electric); gallium arsenide; photoconducting switches; pulsed power technology; semiconductor device breakdown; spark gaps; GaAs; GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switches; breakdown mechanism analysis; pulse-charged spark gap operation; semiinsulating GaAs PCSS; streamer discharge; time 220 ps; time 400 ps; Discharges; Gallium arsenide; Ionization; Optical switches; Sparks; Gallium arsenide (GaAs); gas discharge; photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS); spark gaps;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2010.2063039

Filename

5555983