Peculiar Transmission Characteristics of the Large Gap Semi-Insulating GaAs Photoconductive Switch

• Published in: Chinese physics letters Vol. 28; no. 12; pp. 124201 - 1-124201-4
• Main Authors: Shi, Wei (卫施), Ma, Xiang-Rong (湘蓉马)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.12.2011
• Subjects: Electric potential; Gallium arsenide; Gallium arsenides; Overvoltage; Semiconductors; Statistical analysis; Switches; Voltage
• ISSN: 0256-307X; 1741-3540
• DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/28/12/124201

Unique experimental phenomena are discovered in a large gap semiinsulating (SI) GaAs photoconductive semiconductor switch (PGSS) and the peculiar transmission characteristics are exhibited in the experiment. The transmission characteristics for the large gap SI-GaAs PCSS are entirely different from the commonly designed PCSS. By analyzing the differences of the transmission characteristics between the common and the large gap SI-GaAs PGSS, a detailed statistical analysis and theoretical explanations are expounded. The large gap SI-GaAs PGSS works in the overvoltage relaxation limit space charge accumulation (LSA) mode when the conditions of 5 x 10 super(4)s-cm super(-3) [< or =] n sub(0)/ [functionof] [< or =] 3 x 10 super(5) s-cm super(-3) and n sub(0)L [> or =] 1O super(13) cm super(-2) must be met in the switch, with n sub(0) being carrier concentration and [functionof] the frequency. The large gap SI-GaAs PGSS we developed has not shown the nonlinear (lock-in) behavior at high bias voltage, so the withstand voltage and service life for PGSS are improved