Abstract

Natural type IIa diamond wafers of various thicknesses and active areas were used to construct several electron beam activated diamond devices. The electron bombardment yields a current-voltage characteristic very similar to that of a bipolar transistor. The device on-state resistance is consistent with a simple carrier drift and space charge model. The diamond conduction to bombarding current gain ranges from 1,000 to 3,000 depending upon the target thickness and the bombarding electron energy. Average voltage gradients in diamond targets on the order of a mega-volt per centimeter were obtained. This enabled switch demonstration with delivery of 26kW to a resistive load. Using short duration electron pulses, high-repetition-rate sub-nanosecond switching speed consistent with the circuit time constant is demonstrated.

© 1995 Optical Society of America