Electric current propagation and interruption in the plasma formed by uv laser radiation

The plasma formed by XeCl* laser on the metal targets has been studied. The plasma formation thresholds and expansion velocities have been. It was shown that long-lived plasma objects can be formed near a target in Xe or air at pressure 0, 1-1 atm. Non-symmetric current passing through the laser plasma and the effect of current interruption in the plasma stream were obtained. It is shown that the interruption rate is maximal for light element plasma and (or) for current pulses with short rice-time. The interruption effect was used for development of generators with inductive energy storages. Generator with a plasma erosion opening switch with opening current up to 10 kA operating at pulse repetition rate up to several Hz was developed and applied for excitation of pulsed gas lasers.