Investigation of Surface Breakdown on Semiconductor Devices Using Optical Probing Techniques.

摘要

An extremely attractive feature of photoconductive switches is that they can be used at fairly high voltages (multikilovolts). The speed and high voltages handling capability of photoconductive switches is superior to that of any other device. A 100-kV, 80-MW, laser-activated photoconductive power switch has been successfully operated. Photoconductive switches are particularily useful for applications that require precise timing of high-voltage electrical signals with optical signals. High-power electrical pulses with picosecond rise times can be generated that are synchronous to picosecond optical pulses. The first applications of high-power, picosecond, photoconductive switching were for use in the laser fusion facility at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) of the University of Rochester. A completely optoelectronic prepulse suppression scheme based on photoconductive switches was used with LLE's OMEGA laser system.