Combined flux compression and plasma opening switch on the Saturn pulsed power generator
Plasma Physics
2010-05-19 v1
Abstract
A wire-array flux-compression cartridge installed on Sandia's Saturn pulsed power generator doubled the current into a 3-nH load to 6 MA and halved its rise time to 100 ns. The current into the load, however, was unexpectedly delayed by almost 1 microsecond. Estimates of a plasma flow switch acting as a long-conduction-time opening switch are consistent with key features of the power compression. The results suggest that microsecond-conduction-time plasma flow switches can be combined with flux compression both to amplify currents and to sharpen pulse rise times in pulsed power drivers.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1004.2431,
title = {Combined flux compression and plasma opening switch on the Saturn pulsed power generator},
author = {Franklin S. Felber and Eduardo M. Waisman and Michael G. Mazarakis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1004.2431},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.