Research on a low-jitter laser-triggered pseudo-spark switch

Pseudo-spark switches have been successfully used in a variety of pulsed-power applications, including the European Large Hadron Collider, the Z-hoop fusion device, and the Dense Plasma Focus device. For such applications, it is important to reduce the trigger energy of the switch to save cost and improve stability. In this paper, a laser-triggered pseudo-spark switch is designed, which is triggered by a laser with a wavelength of 532 nm. Increasing the laser energy reduces the delay and jitter of the switch, and the laser energy threshold of 1.5 mJ for achieving switch stability can make the jitter of the switch less than 1 ns; in addition, increasing the hydrogen pressure inside the tube reduces the delay and jitter of the switch; and when the triggering energy is sufficiently large, the switch delay and jitter do not change with the switch when the anode voltage is changed, and the switch delay and jitter do not change with the switch. When the trigger energy is large enough, changing the anode voltage, the delay and jitter of the switch do not change with the switching voltage.