UV triggering of remote BLTs using optical fibers, and neodymium:glass, neodymium: YAG, and copper vapor lasers

Three fiber-optic trigger systems are currently being designed and constructed for a BLT (back-lighted thyratron). A one-shot trigger system is based on an Nd-glass laser (1060 nm), and Nd:YAG (1064 nm) with variable rep-rate up to 50 Hz, and a multi-kHz trigger system is based on a copper vapor laser (CVL); two lines are simultaneously present at 511 nm and 578 nm. For the Nd:glass system, the output light from the fiber must be frequency quadrupled. For the CVL system, the frequency must be doubled. A design goal for each system is to provide a 1-10 μJ, 1-2 ns UV (ultraviolet) pulse to the BLT cathode. Design considerations and progress are reported for each of the systems. It is concluded that the CVL is a very promising source of multi-kHz trigger light for any of the proposed methods