1.23-ns Pulsewidth of Quenched High Gain GaAs Photoconductive Semiconductor Switch at 8-nJ Excitation

In this letter, we show that the quenched high gain (HG) operation of gallium arsenide photoconductive semiconductor switches can be achieved with an excitation energy as low as 8 nJ. The minimum pulse width of 1.23 ns is obtained and the corresponding bias electric field is 71.8 kV/cm. The concept of an avalanche gain is proposed to verify that the avalanche level is remained in the quenched HG operation.