Abstract:
This invention provides a laser or high voltage switch which has two spaced apart main discharge electrodes which define between them a main discharge gap, a discharge inducing member that is of an insulating material and which provides a planar or curved trigger discharge surface adjacent the electrodes and partially or completely bridging the main discharge gap, and an auxiliary conductor on the other side of the discharge inducing member to the main discharge electrodes and capacitively coupled to one of them by a distributed stray capacitance, such that when an excitation pulse is applied across the main discharge electrodes an initial capacitively initiated low order trigger discharge occurs onto the trigger discharge surface, and preferably across the surface from one main discharge electrode to the other. This trigger discharge photo-ionises a gas in the main discharge gap to cause a glow discharge between the main electrodes. The auxiliary conductor may be sheet like and may be either part of a pulsing circuit or it may be directly electrically coupled to one of the main discharge electrodes. The conductor may be shielded by a shielding member to vary the capacitive coupling between the conductor and the main discharge electrode. One or both of the main discharge electrodes may have a curved portion and a sharpened portion to induce a corona discharge.
Abstract:
The disclosure relates to a gas injected vacuum switch comprising a housing having an interior chamber, a conduit for evacuating the interior chamber, within the chamber an anode and a cathode spaced from the anode, and a detonator for injecting electrically conductive gas into the chamber between the anode and the cathode to provide a current path therebetween.
Abstract:
Electrically floating wire mesh or perforate plate electrodes are interposed between the two electrodes of a conventional spark gap, with interelectrode spacings from 0.010 to 0.005 inches. Rise times of the order of 2 nanoseconds with repetition rates up to 200 kHz are produced.
Abstract:
An ultra-fast terminator for laser pulses is provided in which plasma produced by firing a laser-triggered spark gap is used to speed and enhance the formation of a highly opaque plasma across the focal plane of a laser beam. The additional plasma contributed by the spark gap serves to prevent leakage of the beam past the plasma created by the laser itself.
Abstract:
An electric power controlling apparatus, wherein the time for which electric power is supplied to a load is determined in accordance with a change of the charging or discharging time of a capacitor, the amount of power to be supplied to said load is determined in accordance with a change of the trigger phase of a thyristor, and said changes are achieved by selecting variable elements by the use of pushbutton switches.