The Laser Triggered Spark Gap

摘要

The experiment reported here is an extension of earlier work in this laboratory on the interaction of laser beams with metallic surfaces. It was conducted with the view of investigating the feasibility of the laser beam as a trigger for high voltage gaps. The formative times were studied as a function of the working voltage for different values of pressure, gap spacing and laser power. They were found to vary inversely as the gap pressure p, and exponentially with the gap spacing d for spacings greater than 4 mm. For gaps shorter than this, no effect of variation in d was noticed. The formative times also showed an inverse exponential dependence on the laser power in the range of laser powers considered (1.6 - 8 MW). Using N2 as a standard, the formative time curves showed a distinct improvement as oxygen was added. Pure O2 gave faster times than air and air showed slightly better switching times than N2. A similar improvement was observed when the argon content in argon/nitrogen mixtures was increased. (Author)