Low-Voltage AlGaAs/GaAs Thyristors as High-Peak-Current Pulse Switches for High-Power Semiconductor Laser Pumping

Abstract

The dynamic characteristics of a low-voltage thyristor based on an AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure have been studied in the mode of generation of high-amplitude pulses with width of tens of nanoseconds in a circuit with low-impedance load based on an array of high-power AlGaAs/GaAs semiconductor lasers. The presented approach uses thyristors and diode laser arrays as discrete components, so it can be extended to other (not AlGaAs/GaAs-based) semiconductor lasers. It is demonstrated that a current pulse can be generated with an amplitude of 69 A and a width of 40 ns in a vertically assembled stack of an array of semiconductor lasers and thyristors. It was shown that raising the number of single thyristors does not lead to pulse broadening and makes it possible to raise several-fold the peak current amplitude to 208 A, with the peak laser emission power reaching a value of 78 W.