Electronic – Recommended Mosfets for switching purposes

The main division is between BJTs and FETs, with the big difference being the former are controlled with current and the latter with voltage.

If you're building small quantities of something and aren't very familiar with the various choices and how you can use the characteristics to advantage, it's probably simpler to stick mosly with MOSFETs. They tend to be more expensive than equivalent BJTs, but are conceptually easier to work with for beginners. If you get "logic level" MOSFETS, then it becomes particularly simple to drive them. You can drive a N channel low side switch directly from a microcontroller pin. IRLML2502 is a great little FET for this as long as you aren't exceeding 20V.

Once you get familiar with simple FETs, it's worth it to get used to how bipolars work too. Being different, they have the own advantages and disadvantages. Having to drive them with current may seem like a hassle, but can be a advantage too. They basically look like a diode accross the B-E junction, so this never goes very high in voltage. That means you can switch 100s of Volts or more from low voltage logic circuits. Since the B-E voltage is fixed at first approximation, it allows for topologies like emitter followers. You can use a FET in source follower configuration, but generally the characteristics aren't as good.

Another important difference is in full on switching behaviour. BJTs look like a fixed voltage source, usually 200mV or so at full saturation to as high as a Volt in high current cases. MOSFETs look more like a low resistance. This allows lower voltage accross the switch in most cases, which is one reason you see FETs in power switching applications so much. However, at high currents the fixed voltage of a BJT is lower than the current times the Rdson of the FET. This is especially true when the transistor has to be able to handle high voltages. BJT have generally better characteristics at high voltages, hence the existance of IGBTs. A IGBT is really a FET used to turn on a BJT, which then does the heavy lifting.

There are many many more things that could be said. I've listed only a few to get things started. The real answer would be a whole book, which I don't have time for.

The first problem with this approach is that having the transistor ON most of the time is VERY inefficient; you are dropping 1000V across Rl most of the time. Much better to turn the transistor ON for very short pulses. It'll shrink your 1000V supply needs for a start. (This means interchanging R and FET)

You could use an N type to pull down, with some isolation (opto, or pulse transformer) to its gate drive.

If R-C is too long to meet your rise time spec, you can use a totem pole (another FET in place ofthe resistor)

EDIT :

I just plugged a wild guess of 100pf for your lump of stainless, plus a relatively small interconnection into your stated requirements of swinging 1000V in 1 us.

Check these numbers but here's what I got.

100pf 1000V in 1 us
Q=CV = 100nC
I= Q/T = 100ma
P wasted in RL = IV = 100W.

This only considers the relatively fast slew when you turn on the FET. Turnoff will be slower... R = V/I = 10 kilohms RC = 1 us so the fall time to 10% will be about 2us, maybe acceptable.