STUDIES OF THE BASIC PROCESSES RESPONSIBLE FOR LASER-TRIGGERED BREAKDOWN IN GASES

A number of technologically important applications require high voltage, high current switches which operate with low delay and jitter in the closure time. Laser-triggered spark gaps offer significant advantages for use in these applications in that the switching of 50 kV with a delay in the range of 3.0 ns. and jitter in the 0.1 ns. range has been demonstrated.1 In this paper some experimental studies intended to elucidate the basic physical processes important in such devices are described