Development of electron-beam controlled solid switches

Summary form only given. Electron-beam-controlled switching experiments were performed using switch samples of quartz crystal and polycrystalline zinc selenide. The electron source (150 kV, 200 A, 2ns) was a very compact electron beam generator. The switch sample was set on a piece of 50 /spl Omega/ stripline to obtain a fast current rise. Connected with the stripline was a 3 m, 50 /spl Omega/ DC charged cable which discharges when the switch turns on. The current through the switch was observed downstream with a 50 /spl Omega/ terminated oscilloscope. For the quartz crystals, the authors used samples to 80 /spl mu/m in thickness and induced the current through the sample by the electron beam. With a charging voltage of 3 kV, very fast temporal response (less than 1 ns) was obtained with the quartz samples. For the polycrystalline ZnSe samples, switch current was induced through samples 0.9 mm in thickness. The current transients of ZnSe were found to be on the order of 10 ns and the development of the switch resistance after the electron beam pulse was observed to be exponential.