Journal ArticleDOI
The laser triggering of high-voltage switches
A H Guenther,J R Bettis +1 more
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TLDR
The laser-triggered switching (LTS) of highvoltage spark gaps is considered in this paper, which predicts dependencies of the delay to breakdown and switching jitter on such variables as fill gas mixture and pressure, gap spacing, polarity, and geometry.Abstract:
The laser-triggered switching (LTS) of high-voltage spark gaps is considered. The basic theory is presented which predicts dependencies of the delay to breakdown and switching jitter on such variables as fill gas mixture and pressure, gap spacing, polarity, and geometry. It is shown that electrical arcs of several metres length can be directed by laser action. A complete set of experiments is reported which adequately support the proposed theory. The performance of LTS is considered and results are reported on multiple gap triggering, multiple channel triggering, triggering of voltages in excess of 3 mV, repetitive switching at rates up to 50 pps with subnanosecond jitter, as well as various geometries, pulse forming demonstrations, and output voltage selection on a Marx generator.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Femtosecond ultraviolet laser pulse induced lightning discharges in gases
TL;DR: In this article, a complete theoretical model is presented to simulate the electron seeding and the evolution of the plasma of electron-ion in the applied field, and the results of the theory verified by small scale experiments are used to simulate lightning in atmosphere, and helps to define the parameters of a laser system for lightning protection.
Journal ArticleDOI
High-voltage electrical discharges induced by an ultrashort-pulse UV laser system
TL;DR: In this paper, a femtosecond UV laser source (248.6 nm) was used to study large gap laser-induced electrical discharges, and conditions and conditions leading to a discharge over tens of metres, with dual UV and IR laser pulses, were discussed.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
An empirical formula for gas switch breakdown delay
TL;DR: In this article, an empirical scaling relationship between the mean electric field and the breakdown time has been found, and it is shown that the data bases are related by /spl rho/spl tau/ = 97800 (E/spl rHO/)/sup -3.44/ where /spl tAU/ is the time delay to breakdown in seconds, and E is the average electric field in kV/cm.
Journal ArticleDOI
Arc resistance of laser‐triggered spark gaps
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on measurements that determine the resistance of the arc in a fully diagnosed laser-triggered spark gap, where a capacitive voltage divider is used to measure the voltage drop across the switch, a current-viewing resistor measures the current, and an interferometer measures the diameter of the plasma column.
PatentDOI
Uv radiation triggered rail-gap switch
TL;DR: In this article, Taylor and Alcock described a rail gap switch with a UV radiation triggered rail-gap switch, which applies a high volt-age from a low impedance source to a high impedance load.
References
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Book
Laser Interaction and Related Plasma Phenomena
George H. Miley,Heinrich Hora +1 more
TL;DR: The report on the Thirteenth International Conference held at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, United States of America, 13-18 April 1997 as discussed by the authors was published in 1997.
Journal ArticleDOI
Picosecond optoelectronic switching and gating in silicon
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measured the switching speed of two transmission gates in tandem, each having an aperture time of 15 psec, by correlating the response of two transceivers in tandem.
Journal ArticleDOI
Laser-induced breakdown of gases
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the role of multiphoton absorption and inverse bremsstrahlung or cascade collisional ionization in the early stages of the formation of plasma.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nanosecond Flash Photolysis
George Porter,Michael R. Topp +1 more
TL;DR: A flash photolysis system, using a pulsed laser as source, has been designed and used to study events having a duration of a few nanoseconds; an improvement over conventional flash techniques by a factor of a thousand.
Journal ArticleDOI
Progressive lightning IV-The discharge mechanism
TL;DR: In three previous papers as discussed by the authors, Schonland and Collens described the results of a study of the lightning discharge to ground by means of the Boys and other cameras, which was continued with improved instruments, and the electrical changes taking place during the discharge have been examined by using a cathode-ray oscillograph.