Date of Award

Spring 1994

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical Engineering

Committee Director

Karl H. Schoenbach

Committee Member

Hani Elsayed-Ali

Committee Member

R. Joshi

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55A45

Abstract

The use of electron induced luminescence (cathodoluminescence) in gallium arsenide offers the possibility to modulate the conductance of the material on a timescale of nanoseconds and with a pulse rate of MHz, through modulation of an electron-beam current. This ionization mechanism allows the utilization of semi-insulating GaAs in fast, high power closing and opening switches. The efficiency of the switches is determined by the hold-off voltage of the GaAs switches, and by the conversion efficiency of electron energy into (useful) photon energy. Studies of the dark-current and the electron-beam induced conductance in semi-insulating GaAs have been performed in order to obtain information on the performance of these switches. It was demonstrated that the contact configuration has a strong influence on the hold-off voltage. Particularly, it was shown that doping of the electron-beam irradiated contact region improves both hold-off voltage and switch conductance. The obtained results allow us to optimize electron-beam controlled GaAs switches with respect to efficiency.

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DOI

10.25777/nprk-1s09

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