An atmospheric pressure gas switch triggered by array microhollow cathode discharge

Summary form only given. Microhollow cathode discharge (MHCD) can provide high density of initial electrons under pulse voltage, which is used to ignite efficiently a gas switch discharge at an atmospheric pressure. The structure of microhollow cathode is two electrodes divided by about 200µm thick dielectric and threaded by about 100µm hollow. Array microhollow cathode discharge (MHCD) was operated at atmospheric with 2.5kV pulse voltage of 20ns rise time and current up to 100A, which is supplied by the charged capacitance of power supply. Triggered by such structure, a gas switch operated under voltage of 50kV with 30ns fall time and current of 1kA with 15ns rise time was fabricated with a 2nF capacitance and a 50Ω resistance.