Optically triggered diamond switches

The superior characteristics of diamond with respect to breakdown voltage (10/sup 7/ V cm/sup -1/), thermal conductivity (2000 W m/sup -1/ K/sup -1/) and charge carrier lifetime (10/sup -9/ s) make it a perfect material for fast switching of high voltage, high power pulses. Following the authors´ earlier e-beam triggered diamond switch development, they now aim to develop an optical trigger for the diamond switch. Experiments have been performed with a 0.5 mm thick-type IIa diamond switch. The switch was irradiated with high power density UV radiation from a laser. Switching data at several blocking voltages up to 700 V with 500 ps time resolution have been obtained. It has been shown that depending on the intensity and the energy of the incident UV radiation, the on-state resistance of the diamond switch can be decreased from 10/sup 12/ /spl Omega/-cm to /spl ap/2.5 /spl Omega/-cm. Data that suggest that it is possible to manufacture optically triggered switches for high power applications with rise and fall times of less than 50 ns are presented.