Gas Discharge Closing Switches

Pulsed power technology, in the simplest of terms, usually concerns the storage of electrical energy over relatively long times and then its rapid release over a comparatively short period. However, if we leave the definition at that, we miss a multitude of aspects that are important in the ultimate application of pulsed power. It is, in fact, the application of pulsed power technology to which this series of texts will be focused. Pulsed power in today's broader sense means "special power" as opposed to the tra ditional situation of high voltage impulse issues related to the utility industry. Since the pulsed power field is primarily application driven, it has principally an engineering flavor. Today' s applications span those from materials processing, such as metal forming by pulsed magnetic fields, to other varied applications, such as psy chedelic strobe lights or radar modulators. Very high peak power applications occur in research for inertial confinement fusion, the Strategic Defense Initiative and other historical defense uses. lri fact it is from this latter direction that pulsed power has real ized explosive growth over the past half century. Early thrusts were in electrically powered systems that simulated the environment or effects of nuclear weapons detonation. More recently it is being utilized as prime power sources for directed energy weapons, such as lasers, microwaves, particle beam weapons, and even mass drivers (kinetic energy weapons).

1 General Switching Considerations.- 2 Electrical Breakdown In Gases In Electric Fields.- 3 Gas Filled Spark Gaps.- Section 3a Self Breakdown Gaps.- Section 3b Trigatron Spark Gaps.- Section 3c Field Distortion Three Electrode Gaps.- Section 3d Electron Beam Triggering of Gas Filled Spark Gaps.- Section 3e Laser Triggering of Gas Filled Spark Gaps.- 4 Vacuum Switches.- Section 4a Electrical Breakdown in Vacuum.- Section 4b Recovery of Vacuum Spark Gaps.- Section 4c Triggered Vacuum Switch Construction and Performance.- 5 Repetitive Operation and Lifetime Considerations for Spark Gaps.- Section 5a Repetitive Spark Gap Switches.- Section 5b Lifetime Considerations.- 6 Surface Discharge Switches.- 7 Thyratrons.- Section 7a Design Principles and Operation Characteristics.- Section 7b Hydrogen Thyratrons and Their Applications as Developed in the UK.- Section 7c Studies of Fundamental Processes in Thyratrons.- Section 7d Fundamental Limitations of Hydrogen Thyratron Discharges.- 8 Metal Vapor Switches.- Section 8a The Mercury-Pool-Cathode Ignitron.- Section 8b Liquid-Metal Plasma Valves.- 9 The Pseudospark Switch.- Section 9a The Pseudospark.- Section 9b The Triggered Pseudospark Discharge.- Section 9c The Back-Lighted Thyratron.- Section 9d High Power, High Current Pseudospark Switches.- Section 9e Pseudospark Switches for High Repetition Rates and Fast Current Risetimes.- Contributors.