Plasma diagnostics on high current ignitrons
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This report describes the results of diagnostic techniques utilized to study the plasma of a specially built demountable ignitron switch. Three anode geometries, flat (standard), inverted cup, and inverted cup with slits, were installed to study the effect of anode geometry on the plasma. Diagnostics included voltage and current monitoring, high speed photography via a Dynafax rotating camera, interferometry via a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and argon laser, and spectroscopy via high speed photography with line mercury filters. All measurements were taken with the ignitron operating in the crowbarred configuration. A 2.56 mF, 10 kV capacitor bank and 1 /xH test stand holding the forward (series) ignitron and demountable (crowbar) ignitron comprise the test circuit. All three anodes were utilized in the photographic analysis; the flat anode was utilized in the interferometric analysis; and the flat and slit-cup anodes were utilized in the spectroscopic analysis.