Two-channel Power Supply for an Imaging System with Copper Bromide Vapor Brightness Amplifiers

Abstract

A two-channel pulsed power supply for an imaging system with brightness amplification and independent synchronous laser illumination is designed. The power supply generates synchronized high-voltage pulses with a frequency of 16–24 kHz, an average electrical power of up to 1.2 kW, and an adjustable amplitude of up to 6.2 kV to pump copper bromide gas discharge tubes with independent control of the temperature parameters of the active medium. To generate pumping pulses for laser media, we used a two-channel thyratron circuit with a common source of stabilized voltage provided by a step-down pulse stabilizer and a bridge inverter-based circuit for the pulsed charge of storage capacitors. The voltage equalization on the storage capacitors is carried out by means of magnetic coupling of the charging inductances wound on a common core. Adjustable delay lines based on variable inductances provide synchronous operation of two brightness amplifiers with a synchronization accuracy of lasing pulses of ±1 ns. The power supply demonstrated stable operation with two gas discharge tubes having different characteristics, including those with different types of electrodes. It has been integrated into a laboratory facility for the study of high-energy materials combustion.

Keywords

• pulsed power supply
• high-voltage generator
• copper bromide laser
• master oscillator-power amplifier system
• high-speed imaging.