A pulsed photoactivatable switch based on a semiconductor laser and an AlGaAs/GaAs high-voltage photodiode

An approach is proposed for generating short electrical pulses in a circuit with a payload, which can be semiconductor laser diodes. Within the framework of the proposed approach, a switch based on a high-voltage AlGaAs/GaAs photodiode was used to generate electrical pulses, and a high-power semiconductor laser operating in gain switching mode was used for its photoactivation with sub-ns transient times. Studies of the dynamics of photoactivated switches have shown their capability to produce voltage pulses, under an equivalent load of 50 ohms, with a peak amplitude of 19 V, a pulse width of 300 ps and a leading edge of 80 ps, which was observed when photoactivated by an optical pulse of a semiconductor laser with a peak power of 9.5 W, a leading edge of 35 ps and a pulse width of 100 ps.