Investigation of UV laser triggered, nanosecond, surface flashover switches

Triggered, multi-channel, surface discharges or surface flashover switching have been investigated as a low inductance, low pulse rate switch for conducting large currents. This paper discusses the investigation of UV (355 nm) laser triggered, single channel, low inductance, ns closure and sub-ns jitter switches for applications in switching high dielectric constant, compact pulse forming lines into accelerator loads. The experimental arrangement for evaluating the switch performance and for measuring the high field dielectric constant of the pulse forming lines is presented. Experimental results of delay and jitter measurements versus optical energy on the flashover surface and DC electric field charge.