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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

An Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Setup to Investigate the Reactive Species Formation
Published on: November 3, 2016
Combined flux compression and plasma opening switch on the Saturn pulsed power generator
Franklin S Felber1, Eduardo M Waisman, Michael G Mazarakis
1Starmark, Inc., P.O. Box 270710, San Diego, California 92198, USA.
Abstract:
A wire-array flux-compression cartridge installed on Sandia's Saturn pulsed power generator doubled the current into a 3-nH load to 6 MA and halved its rise time to 100 ns. The current into the load, however, was unexpectedly delayed by almost 1 micros. Estimates of a plasma flow switch acting as a long-conduction-time opening switch are consistent with key features of the power compression. The results suggest that microsecond-conduction-time plasma flow switches can be combined with flux compression both to amplify currents and to sharpen pulse rise times in pulsed power drivers.
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