A 30-kHz Monocycle Generator Using Linear Photoconductive Switches and a Microchip Laser

Author

Vergne, Bertrand ; Couderc, Vincent ; Lévéque, Philippe

Author_Institution

French-German Res. Inst. of St. Louis, St. Louis

Volume

20

Issue

24

fYear

2008

Firstpage

2132

Lastpage

2134

Abstract

We have demonstrated that diode-pumped microchip laser technology can be well adapted for the generation of electrical kilovolt pulses. An ultra-compact system is presented. It delivers a smooth bipolar pulse of 2 ns, a peak-to-peak voltage of 1.3 kV, and a repetition rate of 30 kHz. The required optical energy to achieve a complete switching is as low as 10 muJ. Because of the linear switching regime, this generator still works after half a billion shots. No limitation in terms of life time is currently expected. Nevertheless, heating problems start to occur at a high repetition rate.

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; microchip lasers; optical pulse generation; optical pumping; optical switches; photoconducting switches; photoconductivity; diode-pumped microchip laser technology; frequency 30 kHz; linear photoconductive switches; monocycle generator; optical energy; photoconductive semiconductor switch heating process; photoconductivity; repetition rate; time 2 ns; voltage 1.3 kV; High repetition rate; linear regime; microchip laser; photoconductivity; semiconductor;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2008.2007132

Filename

4663590