Experimental studies of a microsecond plasma opening switch in the positive polarity regime with inductive load/extraction ion diode

Abstract

Systematic studies of the microsecond plasma opening switch (MPOS) operation in the positive polarity of its inner electrode with an inductive load/B-applied ion diode of the extraction type at a level of 0.3 TW of dissipated power were performed at the DOUBLE generator (300 kA, 480 kV, 1 μs). The detailed measurements of ion flow parameters in the conductive phase of the MPOS showed the considerable enhancement of the ion current amplitude over the thermal flow limit (3–10 times) which is coupled with a significant decrease of electron conductivity in the MPOS across its self-magnetic field. The positive polarity MPOS operation proved to be more critical to the stored current amplitudes and geometry of the electrodes in comparison with the negative polarity case. This fact resulted in limitations of satisfactory performance of the MPOS involving short high-voltage pulse duration, low stored current amplitudes, and a narrow region of acceptable electrode diameters. The variation of the diode anode-cathode (AC) gap provided a sensitive control of the MPOS + magnetically insulated diode (MID) system, which displayed very strong coupling, resulting in clamping of the output voltage in a wide region of diode impedances. The early long-duration (<300 ns) high-voltage (50–200 kV) prepulse improves plasma production at the anode of the MID prior to the application of the main pulse. The optimal performance of the MPOS+MID system was realized at the level of ZMPOS/ZMID = 2.5. The energy of the extracted high-power ion beam made up 3.5 kJ, its power being 120 GW with 40% efficiency of energy transfer from MPOS to the MID.