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Introduction
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O. Frolov et al.
of the selfbreakdown value the delay time and jitter were obtained and amounted
to several hundreds ns and 20 ns accordingly. These experiments were reexamined
by Dougal and Williams [2].
The infrared Nd:YAG lasers with output energy of a few hundreds mJ are widely
used for lasertriggered switching [3]. This can be explained by their possibility to
exceed easily the intensities necessary for tunnelionization of atoms and molecules.
For rough estimate the Keldysh parameter [4] is used. Herein, we report the several
hundred picosecond jitter operation of a pressurized spark gap triggered by Nd:YAG
laser pulses with energies ranging from 250 to 850 mJ.
2
Experimental apparatus
Air
photodiode
Rogowski coil
Rogowski coil
Laser beam
Insulator
Laser beam
Insulator
Air/Nitrogen
7 nF photodiode
H. V.
7 nF
H. V.
The laser used for triggering the spark gap was a 1064nm Qswitched Nd:YAG
laser (Quantel Brilliant B) with a repetition rate of 10 Hz, but used in single pulse
operation mode. Its maximum optical energy is 850 mJ, pulse duration is 5 ns
FWHM, the laser beam divergence is 0.5 mrad and the output beam diameter is
8 mm. The spark gap discharges a 7 nF/50 kV capacitor into a low inductance load.
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The time delay between the laser pulse (registered by photodiode) and the beginning of current pulse (monitored by Rogowski coil) was measured using 2 GSa/s
digitizing oscilloscope HP54542C. The laserinduced breakdown was investigated
at voltages ranging from 50 % to 90 % of the spark gap selfbreakdown value.
3
Results
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
0
10
12
Time (ns)
Fig. 2. Typical laser (red) and current (pink) pulses are shown.
120
350
300
Jitter (ns)
Delay (ns)
100
45
0
250
200
150
100
45
0
80
60
40
20
50
0
45
55
65
75
85
Percentage of self-breakdown voltage
95
45
55
65
75
85
Percentage of self-breakdown voltage
95
Fig. 3. Spark gap delay time and jitter as a function of selfbreakdown voltage. The angles
of incidence of the laser beam were 45 and 0 to the surface of the ground electrode.
The gap distance was adjustable from 7.2 to 13 mm. The spark gap filled with air at an
atmospheric pressure. The voltage was 19.5 kV. The energy of the laser beam was 850 mJ.
The dependence of the delay and the jitter on the percentage of selfbreakdown
voltage in the range from 50 % to 90 % of selfbreakdown voltage is shown in Fig. 3.
Both these quantities (delay and jitter) reduce as the percentage of selfbreakdown
Czech. J. Phys. 54 (2004)
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O. Frolov et al.
voltage increases. At low percentages of selfbreakdown voltage delay and jitter are
significantly different for two angles of incidence of the laser beam: while at 45
incidence the delay and jitter dramatically increase with diminishing the percentage
of selfbreakdown voltage, at 0 incidence both these quantities only slightly rise.
This is because in the later case streamers propagate along the same path as the
laser beam that preexcites and preionizes gas on its way.
The effect of the pressure of nitrogen on delay and jitter is shown in Fig. 4
for electrode separation 1.2 mm, angle of incidence 0 , and pressure range from
100 to 600 kPa. The delay has a maximum at pressure 400 kPa (probably due to
molecular structure of the gas). The jitter rises with nitrogen pressure and reaches
value of several hundreds of picosecond at nitrogen pressure 600 kPa.
29
0.75
27
0.70
0.65
23
Jitter (ns)
Delay (ns)
25
21
19
0.60
0.55
0.50
17
0.45
15
13
0.40
0
100
200
300
400
Pressure (kPa)
500
600
700
100
200
300
400
Pressure (kPa)
500
600
700
40
2.5
35
2
Jitter (ns)
Delay (ns)
Fig. 4. Spark gap delay and jitter vs pressure of nitrogen from 100 to 600 kPa. The
electrode separation was 1.2 mm at voltage around 80 % of selfbreakdown voltage.
The energy of the laser pulse was 850 mJ. The angle of incidence of the laser beam
was 0 to the surface of the ground electrode.
30
25
20
1.5
1
0.5
15
0
200
300
400
500
600
700
Laser pulse energy (mJ)
800
900
200
300
400
500
600
700
Laser pulse energy (mJ)
800
900
Fig. 5.
Delay and jitter vs laser pulse energy from 250 to 850 mJ in nitrogen at pressure 200 kPa. The electrode separation was 1.2 mm at voltage
around 80 % of selfbreakdown voltage. The angle of incidence of the laser beam
was 0 to the surface of the ground electrode.
The dependence of the delay and the jitter on laser power at the nitrogen filling
pressure 200 kPa, electrode gap 1.2 mm, and angle of incidence 0 is shown in Fig. 5.
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At high laser pulse energies a low switch jitter was observed (for energy of the laser
pulse around 800 mJ the jitter fell down to 200 ps), this is probably positively
influenced by very good reproducibility of laser pulses. For the delay significantly
greater than the laser pulse duration, the buildup of the avalanche proceeds with
statistical fluctuations which, as rule of thumb, tend to make the jitter up to 10 %
of the delay.
These results will be used for construction of lowjitter lasertriggered spark
gap in our new pulsecapillarydischarge driver [5].
4
Conclusions
References
[1] A. H. Guenther and J. R. Bettis: IEEE J. Quantum Electronics 3 (1967) 581.
[2] R. A. Dougal and P. F. Williams: J. Phys. D 17 (1984) 903.
[3] A. H. Guenther and J. R. Bettis: J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 11 (1978) 1577.
[4] L. V. Keldysh: Sov. Phys. JETP 20 (1965) 1307.
[5] O. Frolov, K. Kolacek, J. Schmidt, V. Bohacek, V. Prukner, M. Ripa:
WDS03 Proceedings of Contributed Papers, Part II (2003) 477.
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