High-Voltage Rectifier Diodes Used as Photoconductive Device for Microwave Pulse Generation

Generation of unipolar and bipolar pulses by using high- and medium-voltage silicon rectifier diodes is achieved. These components are provided by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Furthermore, these devices work in the linear mode of photoconducting switches. Generation of electrical unipolar pulses with an amplitude of 10.7 kV and a full-width at half-maximum of 300 ps by using only 1.2 mJ of optical power is demonstrated. This energy value is 10-100 times less than usually published during the past decades. Furthermore, the linear mode running of these devices permits to synchronize several generators with a precision as low as 2 ps. This low timing jitter is useful for bipolar generators in order to control their spectrum with high precision, i.e., bipolar pulses of 3 kV peak-to-peak have been generated with a cycle duration of 400 ps and an optical energy of 1 mJ