Experimental study of high gain PCSS triggered by high-power pulse laser diode

A new kind of high-power pulse laser diode has been researched, and it is mainly used for triggering high-gain gallium arsenide photoconductive semiconductor switch (GaAs PCSS) in experiments. The driver of the laser diode is based on RF MOSFET and it provides an ultra-fast pulse drive current for the laser diode, and the rise-time, FWHM and peak current of the drive current are 4 ns, 20 ns and 130 A, respectively. The characteristics of the laser diode have been researched, including laser pulse waveform, energy, power, optical field distribution, and so on. In the Blumlein transmission line structure, the influences of bias voltage, laser spot size, laser energy and laser power on the on-state resistance and jitter of the GaAs PCSS are analyzed. Experiment shows that, lager and more uniform laser spot, higher laser energy and power all help to improve the performance of PCSS.