Kilovolt, Nanosecond, and Picosecond Electric Pulse Shaping by Using Optoelectronic Switching

This letter describes subnanosecond electric pulse generation and shaping. The optoelectronic switching of silicon semiconductor devices embedded in a frozen wave generator is obtained in the linear regime. Control of the switching delay time, combined with power modulation of the optical gating signals, enables temporal and spectral pulse shaping. In this way, monocycle nanosecond and/or picosecond pulses with balanced or unbalanced positive and negative components and square electrical pulses with adjustable duration are obtained.