Cable guns as a plasma source in a plasma opening switch

The characteristics of a plasma generated by cable plasma guns have been studied by a laser interferometer. Cable plasma guns are frequently used as a plasma source in plasma opening switches. In our experiments, the plasma source consists of eight coaxial cable guns mounted on the outer electrode of concentric coaxial electrodes. The reproducibility of the gun in subsequent shots is found to be better than 10%, and the gun-to-gun difference is less than 15%. Assuming a symmetry of eight guns, the contour maps of the electron plasma density are plotted as functions of time. The plasma density becomes maximum near the gun nozzle and near the inner coaxial electrode. The plasma density is low in the area between the coaxial electrodes during the early time of the discharge. At a later time, the plasma fills the space between the two guns more uniformly. Still photographs of the plasma luminosity show a good correspondence with the plasma density plots which were taken 10 /spl mu/s after the discharge initiation. The plasma gun system is designed for use in a 400-kA inductive voltage adder with the inductive energy storage system.