Experimental Study on the Initial Current Characteristics of Laser-Triggered Vacuum Switch During Trigger Process

Abstract

The trigger characteristics of the laser-triggered vacuum switch (LTVS) are significantly affected by the parameters of the laser-produced initial current. In this paper, a low operating voltage is applied across LTVS, and the trigger experiments are carried out under different laser energy and operating voltage. The initial current is obtained by measuring the voltage drop across a 25 Ω resistor. The influence of laser energy and operating voltage on the trigger characteristics can be characterized by the parameters of the initial current, such as the current peak value, the number of charges released, the rate of rise, and the delay time. The experimental results show that an increase in laser energy can increase the current peak value, the number of charges released, and the rate of rise, and can decrease the delay time. These results show that an increase in laser energy helps the LTVS trigger process. The external electric field is much smaller than the laser electric field. Hence, only the current peak value is affected by the operating voltage, and the impact on the other current parameters is weak.