skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Combined Flux Compression and Plasma Opening Switch on the Saturn Pulsed Power Generator

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
; ;  [1]
  1. Starmark, Inc., P.O. Box 270710, San Diego, California 92198 (United States)

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 {mu}s. 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.

OSTI ID:
21410674
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 18; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.185001; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English