Waveguide Mode Formation as a Potential Cause of Switch Failure in High-Power Wide-Bandgap Photoconductive Switches

Autor:	Timothy Wolfe, Jason Roos, James C. Petrosky, Ashley Francis, Timothy Zens, Andrew Terzuoli, Derrick Langley
Rok vydání:	2015
Předmět:	Nuclear and High Energy Physics Materials science Dielectric strength Band gap business.industry Finite-difference time-domain method Condensed Matter Physics Optical switch Power (physics) Impact ionization Semiconductor Optoelectronics Charge carrier business
Zdroj:	IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. 43:4143-4148
ISSN:	1939-9375 0093-3813
Popis:	The integration of photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSSs) into pulsed power systems may have improvements over conventional switching, but failure modes occurring near the illuminated edge of PCSS devices between switching operations present a serious limiting factor. While these failure modes have previously been difficult to characterize, this paper proposes a theory for a potential contributing source of failure supported by observations derived from the results of an FDTD simulation on an optically excited semiconductor switch. A computational analysis combining both solid-state and electromagnetic physical models reveals what appears to be an unintentional waveguide-like behavior in the optically excited plasma-filled PCSS device in strong agreement with the documented observations in the experiment. The net effect of nonuniform charge carrier generation as a result of waveguide-like mode formation is theoretically assessed, and the additional areas of investigation into this pivotal problem area in the PCSS design are suggested.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::e95032492fae7207fcf99d48ac1ea9ac https://doi.org/10.1109/tps.2015.2490042 Zobrazit plný text záznamu