Light Pulses and Spectral Characteristics Produced by Electrical Exploding Wires

Abstract

During the last several years, the exploding wire phenomena have been used extensively in a wide variety of experiments such as studies on short duration light pulse, optical maser excitation, source of X ray and electrical discharge metal forming. In the present day laboratory work there frequently arises a need for a source of continuous radiation giving high intense flashes of short duration.This paper deals with the study of short duration light pulses and spectral characteristics produced by exploding wires. The thin wires bridged between electrodes gap are bursted with the discharge of capacitor.As the result, it is shown that the intense short duration single flashes of length about 3μsec can easily be obtained by application of exploding wires.The spectral characteristics depend on the wire material and condition under which the wire is exploded. The emission giving the visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum in the spectral radiances of under water-exploded wire has a more intense continuous background than in air, but shows narrow line absorption.The under water transient arc discharge ignited after the burst of the wire radiates a continuous spectrum corresponding to a black body at high temperature.