Physical Review Special Topics. Accelerators and Beams (Jun 2008)

Development of a 5.4 MV laser triggered gas switch for multimodule, multimegampere pulsed power drivers

  • K. R. LeChien,
  • M. E. Savage,
  • V. Anaya,
  • D. E. Bliss,
  • W. T. Clark,
  • J. P. Corley,
  • G. Feltz,
  • J. E. Garrity,
  • D. W. Guthrie,
  • K. C. Hodge,
  • J. E. Maenchen,
  • R. Maier,
  • K. R. Prestwich,
  • K. W. Struve,
  • W. A. Stygar,
  • T. Thompson,
  • J. Van Den Avyle,
  • P. E. Wakeland,
  • Z. R. Wallace,
  • J. R. Woodworth

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTAB.11.060402
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 6
p. 060402

Abstract

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Laser triggered, megavolt, megampere gas switches are frequently utilized to synchronize multiple pulsed power driver modules for inertial-confinement fusion, isentropic compression, and radiation physics experiments. The device developed to synchronize the 36 modules of the refurbished Z accelerator at Sandia National Laboratories is a 5.4 MV, 700 kA, sulfur-hexafluoride (SF_{6}) filled, laser triggered gas switch. At this operating level, switch jitter is 5 ns, the prefire rate is less than 0.1%, the average optic lifetime is greater than 200 shots, and the flashover rate is less than 1%. Over 1000 shots on a single-module test facility were conducted while iterating several potential design improvements, including utilizing low-erosion electrode material, varying SF_{6} pressure, and modifying internal switch geometry all while keeping the basic switch architecture and footprint constant. Results of this development effort are presented herein.