Energy balance of a plasma opening switch in the conduction stage

Abstract

The energy balance of a plasma opening switch (POS) in the stage of conduction is calculated for a system, in which the dominating process is the magnetic field penetration into the plasma bridge volume due to the snowplow effect. This mechanism is typical of a microsecond POS for the megaampere range. The energy and momentum distribution over plasma components in POS with axial and radial injection of multispecies plasma are considered.