Pulsed characterization of a UV led for pulsed power applications

Summary form only given. The electrical and optical characteristics of a high power UV LED (365 nm wavelength) were evaluated under pulsed operating conditions for pulsed power applications. Measurements were made over varying pulse width (30 ns-100 μs), current (0 A-250 A), repetition rate (single shot -1 MHz), and temperature (23° C-80° C). Diagnostics used included a calibrated photodiode operating in the linear regime for transient optical power measurements, a grating / high speed ICCD based spectrograph for transient spectral analysis, and multiple 10:1 standard oscilloscope probes configured differentially for electrical measurements. A red shift was observed in the output spectrum of the LED with increasing temperature and increasing pulse-width. LED forward voltage was observed to increase linearly with increasing current (≈ 3.5 V-5.2 V) and decrease with increasing pulse-width. The peak optical power observed was > 13 W and a maximum efficiency of 22 % was observed. The evaluated LED and auxiliary hardware were successfully used as the optical trigger source for a SiC photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) under high impedance conditions.