Electrical pulse compression using photoconductive zinc selenide opening switches

Electrical pulse compression and power gain were observed in an inductive energy storage pulsed power circuit with a photoconductive polycrystalline ZnSe opening switch. The ZnSe opening switch was optically activated by a specially tailored laser pulse operated at the blue-green region. A maximum voltage gain of 8 and a power gain of 64 was obtained with a 509 V DC bias voltage. We observed in the ZnSe opening switch a recoverable breakdown behavior similar to "lock-on" in GaAs. A peak output voltage of 8.9 kV was obtained from a 1 mm thick switch with 5 kV DC bias.<
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