Unrestricted.2016-11-142012-06-012016-11-142007-12http://hdl.handle.net/2346/17452The design and jitter performance of a high pressure, coaxial spark gap for use in pulse ring-down applications is presented. Additional comparisons with trigatron style triggering are also presented. The spark gap is triggered by field distortion of a center plane electrode. The switch was tested up to 75 pulses per second (pps) with a maximum switching voltage of 50 kV in nitrogen. Analysis will focus on jitter measurements taken over the full lifetime of the switch. This paper presents the results of this analysis along with comparisons from the literature. Specifically, switch jitter and lifetime will be evaluated as a function of switch geometry as a whole and as a function of trigger electrode geometry.application/pdfengField-distortionGeometryLifetimeJitterSpark gapThesis