Air breakdown times of two-stage spark gaps and their applications

Author

Tou, T.Y. ; Seow, W.S. ; Siew, W.O. ; Beak, K.W. ; Chen, Y.H. ; Low, K.S.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Adv. Studies, Malaya Univ., Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Volume

21

Issue

6

fYear

1993

fDate

12/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

696

Lastpage

700

Abstract

The air breakdown times of second spark formation, geometrically in series with trigatron switching, are studied and compared to that of a triggered spark gap. Despite a large breakdown jitter of ⩾1 μs in the trigatron, the latter is not observed to affect the electrical closure times of the series-connected second spark gap, which is triggered largely as a result of their direct electrical and optical coupling. While most of the multistage spark gaps are designed for fast and precision switching of high voltages, the air breakdown times of the second spark formation find a number of useful applications, particularly in achieving uniform glow discharge in pulsed gas lasers

Keywords

electric breakdown of gases; 1 mus; air breakdown times; breakdown jitter; direct electrical coupling; electrical closure times; glow discharge; multistage spark gaps; optical coupling; precision switching; pulsed gas lasers; second spark formation; trigatron switching; two-stage spark gaps; Aluminum; Breakdown voltage; Electric breakdown; Jitter; Light sources; Optical coupling; Optical pulses; Spark gaps; Switches; Voltage control;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.256789

Filename

256789