Ultrafast Characteristics of LT-GaAs Photoconductive Semiconductor Switch at 30 kHz Excitation

High repetition rate ultrafast electrical pulses are of significant importance within the domains of ultra-wideband microwave sources, target identification and electronic countermeasures. However, there is a lack of research investigating the characteristics of high repetition rate, high voltage ps-scale electrical pulses. We demonstrate the design of a linear LT-GaAs PCSS utilizing low-temperature GaAs material with a ps-scale carrier lifetime. At a repetition rate of 30 kHz, laser pulse energy of 230 μJ, and bias voltage of 2300 V, the repetitive output electrical pulse has an average peak value of 0.5 kV and an average pulse width of 94.51 ps. The switching output electrical pulse has good repeatability with a peak jitter of 4.38% and pulse width jitter of 6.67 %. By employing a combination of numerical simulations and experiments, the characteristics of the output electrical pulse and the thermal accumulation generated by triggering the PCSS at a repetition rate of 30 kHz are obtained. Our research establishes a foundation for the study and application of ultra-wideband microwave sources.