Controlling the adverse effects of inverse voltage in hydrogen thyratrons

A small amount of inverse voltage (-2 to -3 kV) applied to the thyratron anode at the end of the forward conduction cycle can be beneficial in terms of aiding recovery. These are some circuits and applications, however, where excessive inverse voltages of -10 kV and above are unavoidable due to the nature of the load. Such applications include copper vapour lasers, excimer lasers and some kicker magnet circuits. The authors present a relatively simple circuit technique which can be applied to many circuits to combat the effects of inverse voltage application; a sound understanding of the nature of the problem described in relation to the above has led to an improvement in thyratron technology which has increased useful thyratron lives in these demanding circuits by a factor of three and more