Study on high-power photoconductive semiconductor switches

In this paper semi-insulating GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switch(PCSS) and SiC PCSS were fabricated. Triggered by laser pulse at a wavelength of 1 064 nm, photoconductivity tests of the PCSSs were performed at different bias voltages. Dark current-voltage characteristics of GaAs PCSS and the absorption depth of GaAs with different wavelength were obtained experimentally. GaAs PCSSs both in linear mode and nonlinear mode were studied, and peculiar photoconductivity of high-power GaAs PCSS in nonlinear mode was discussed. High-power SiC PCSSs employing extrinsic photoconductivity are under development, and initial experimental results are presented in this paper.