Anomalous resistivity effect in the plasma opening switch

Summary form only given. We consider the effect of anomalous resistance in the plasma opening switch which plays an important role in the conduction phase before sharp switching. This effect should be taken into account together with EMH and erosion mechanisms. A low frequency turbulence was studied experimentally by observing Stark broadening of hydrogen lines with enhanced spatial resolution implementing a Fabry-Perot interferometer. This plasma diagnostic was similar to that we used in previous experiments. H/sub /spl alpha// line contour (6563 A) observed was compared with modeling of ion-acoustic oscillations with adding of ion micro-fields (Holzmark) together with Doppler broadening and allowed us to estimate the turbulent field and its localizing during the conduction phase. As a result a turbulent electric field in the POS gap was estimated to be 10-30 kV/cm near the anode increasing up to 50 kV/cm near the cathode. These estimations were made at 1-3 eV electron temperature and corresponded to near 1 Ohm POS resistance during the conduction phase.