Low-jitter laser-triggered vacuum switch using a composite target

A laser-triggered high-voltage vacuum switch with a composite KCl/Ti target pellet is described. The switch triggers reliably for 532-nm laser input energies of 20 μJ corresponding to a peak irradiance of 1 MW/cm². Jitter times of less than ±15 ns and delay times of less than 100 ns are observed. Several experiments were performed to explore the operation of the switch. It was found that the amount of energy needed to trigger the switch and the jitter time was strongly dependent on the position of the pellet relative to the cathode. It is noted that the mechanism responsible for the operation of the switch is not completely understood