Development and testing of a plasma opening switch for electron beam generation

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. Plasma opening switches (POS) have boon investigated over the last several years for their potential application in pulse compression and power multiplication systems. This research began by considering the switch as a well defined and separable unit. As knowledge of the device grew, however, the need to consider the switch coupled with the load became generally recognized and acknowledged. Even so, until recently several issues that arise when trying to use the POS to generate a high power electron beam, and then use that electron beam to produce bremsstrahlung radiation, have not been specifically addressed. We will report on experiments performed to investigate some of these practical issues concerning implementation of a POS in a system designed to produce short bursts of X-rays. These issues include conditions affecting transport of the energy from the POS to the load, the presence of a small population of very energetic electrons and the effect this has on optimizing radiation production, and the overall reproducibility of the POS-diode system.