Title :
Optical measurements of railgun plasma armature in an external magnetic field
Author :
Katsuki, S. ; Sueda, T. ; Akiyama, H. ; Sato, K.N.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Kumamoto Univ., Japan
Abstract :
Spectroscopic measurements are performed to investigate both the behaviors of railgun plasma armatures with and without an augmented magnetic field. A permanent magnet was used to augment the magnetic field of the railgun. The electron density has been estimated by Stark broadening of the H/sub /spl alpha// line. Average electron density in the augmented railgun is in the order of 1/spl times/10/sup 19/ cm/sup -3/. The electron density in the railgun without an augmentation is much higher than that in the augmented railgun. This high density of the plasma armature makes the performance degrade.
Keywords :
Stark effect; electron density; permanent magnets; plasma devices; plasma diagnostics; railguns; spectroscopy; H/sub /spl alpha// line; Stark broadening; average electron density; electron density; external magnetic field; optical measurements; performance degradation; permanent magnet; railgun plasma armature; spectroscopic measurements; Boring; Electrons; Lorentz covariance; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic materials; Permanent magnets; Plasma accelerators; Plasma density; Plasma measurements; Railguns;
Conference_Titel :
Pulsed Power Conference, 1995. Digest of Technical Papers., Tenth IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-2791-8
DOI :
10.1109/PPC.1995.599790
