Time resolved plasma characterization in a long conduction time planar plasma opening switch

Summary Form only given, as follows. A system with circuit characteristics much like the US Naval Research Laboratory´s POP experiment has been constructed. The system has an inductance of 300 nH (no plasma in switch, short-circuit load) with 10 nH of this downstream of the POS. The system is pulsed by a 1.9- mu F Scyllac capacitor charged to 50 kV. A Mendel-type carbon plasma gun supplies a plasma with roughly 3*10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/ ion density, predominantly C/sup ++/, with an electron temperature of 10-15 eV. A recently completed run with this switch plasma gave conduction times up to 400 ns, with an opening time of 130 ns, delivering 70 kA (out of 106 kA available) into a short-circuit load. An electron-beam-diode load gave 220-ns conduction time and 190-ns opening time with 70 kA (out of 100 kA available) delivered to the diode with some voltage multiplication. Additional experiments were conducted in which the plasma dynamics and properties were monitored in detail before and during opening.<>