Total internal reflection photoconductive switch

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10530362-B2
Application number	US-201715806243-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2017
Priority date	Nov 7, 2016
Publication date	Jan 7, 2020
Grant date	Jan 7, 2020

Abstract

A total internal reflection photoconductive switch and method of activating such a switch, where the switch includes a pair of electrodes on opposite sides of a photoconductive material having a substantially-rectangular prism geometry. The substantially-rectangular prism geometry includes four edge facets, two opposing electrode-connection facets separated by the edge facets, and at least one input facet located at a corner of the substantially-rectangular prism geometry that is positioned between two edge facets and the two electrode-connection facets, for receiving light therethrough into the photoconductive material at angles supporting total internal reflection.

First claim

We claim:

1. A total internal reflection photoconductive switch comprising:
a photoconductive material having a substantially-rectangular prism geometry with four edge facets each normal to an adjacent edge facet, two opposing electrode-connection facets separated by the edge facets, and at least one input facet located at a corner of the substantially-rectangular prism geometry interposed between two edge facets and the two electrode-connection facets for receiving light therethrough into the photoconductive material at angles supporting total internal reflection; and
opposing electrodes connected to the two electrode connection facets for applying voltage across the photoconductive material.

2. The photoconductive switch of claim 1 ,
wherein the input facet is a concave surface.

3. The photoconductive switch of claim 2 , wherein the concave surface has a curved configuration of a type selected from a group consisting of cylindrical and spherical.

4. The photoconductive switch of claim 1 ,
wherein the input facet is a planar surface.

5. The photoconductive switch of claim 4 ,
wherein the planar surface is angled 45 degrees to each of the two edge facets it is interposed between.

6. The photoconductive switch of claim 1 ,
wherein the two opposing electrode-connection facets are separated by a distance defined as height, and the input facet has a width substantially equal to the height.

7. The photoconductive switch of claim 1 ,
wherein the ratio of the input facet surface area to the total surface area of the photoconductive material is greater than 0 and less than 0.5.

8. A method of activating a photoconductive switch to conduct, comprising:
providing a photoconductive switch comprising: a photoconductive material having a substantially-rectangular prism geometry with four edge facets each normal to an adjacent edge facet, two opposing electrode-connection facets separated by the edge facts, and at least one input facet located at a corner of the substantially—rectangular prism geometry interposed between two edge facets and the two electrode-connection facets for receiving light therethrough into the photoconductive material at angles supporting total internal reflection; and opposing electrodes connected to the two electrode connection facets for applying voltage across the photoconductive material; and
directing light into the photoconductive material through the input facet.

9. The method of claim 8 ,
wherein the input facet is a concave surface.

10. The method of claim 9 ,
wherein the concave surface has a curved configuration of a type selected from a group consisting of cylindrical and spherical.

11. The method of claim 8 ,
wherein the input facet is a planar surface.

12. The method of claim 11 ,
wherein the planar surface is angled 45 degrees to each of the two edge facets it is interposed between.

13. The method of claim 8 ,
wherein the two opposing electrode-connection facets are separated by a distance defined as height, and the input facet has a width substantially equal to the height.

Assignees

• Voss Lars
• Bora Mihail
• Conway Adam
• Grivickas Paulius Vytautas
• L Livermore Nat Security Llc

Inventors

• Voss Lars
• Bora Mihail
• Conway Adam
• Grivickas Paulius Vytautas

Classifications

• Y02E10/547

  Monocrystalline silicon PV cells · CPC title

• H03K17/78 Primary

  using opto-electronic devices, i.e. light-emitting and photoelectric devices electrically- or optically-coupled · CPC title

• H01L31/10

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H10F77/413

  directly associated or integrated with the devices, e.g. back reflectors (directly associated or integrated with photovoltaic cells H10F77/42) · CPC title

• H10F77/122

  comprising only Group IV materials · CPC title