Energy losses during plasma switch conduction phase

The paper considers energy losses in the plasma of the plasma opening switch (POS) used for a power intensifying in high power pulsed generators. Energy losses due to intensive ion flows during the conduction phase are responsible for the current "switching" in conductive plasma. Experimental results of both active resistance performance and energy losses are reported. Being combined with the data on current layer MHD penetration and corresponding increase in inductance this allows to measure the POS resistance components due to both plasma acceleration and resistance. Energy loss evaluation based on this measurement is reported. It demonstrates that POS dissipates up to 20% of the energy stored in the inductance. Electrical parameters for the experiment were as follows: 0.4 /spl mu/F pulsed voltage generator capacity, 200 kV output generator voltage, 120 kA drive current amplitude and 1 /spl mu/s quarter of the current period.