Compact 180-kV Marx generator triggered in atmospheric air by femtosecond laser filaments

Arantchouk, Léonid; Point, Guillaume; Brelet, Yohann; Larour, Jean; Carbonnel, Jérôme; André, Yves-Bernard; Mysyrowicz, A.; Houard, Aurélien

doi:10.1063/1.4868227

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…5, in some cases the guided discharge presents discontinuities that we attribute to "jumps" of the initial current from one filament to the other. Similar discontinuities were observed in the guided discharges produced in our spark gap, Marx and Tesla experiments 9,12,14,18 . The average FWHM measured on the homogeneous parts of the images changes very weakly during 130 µs with a value of 2.1 ± 0.2 mm.…”

supporting

confidence: 58%

“…In Ref. 18, a compact Marx generator was used to create a ~ 21 cm guided discharge of duration about 600 ns due to the mentioned Marx capacitance C max ~ 2 nF and the discharge load resistance R d ~ 300 Ω. In this letter we describe a method, which allows prolonging this parameter up to 130 µs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The laser passes first between the two electrodes and then enters into the Marx generator from its output side. This configuration gives the shortest delay between the HV Marx pulse and the gap breakdown 18 . The breakdown generates a plasma column between the electrodes, which makes possible discharging the capacitor C 2 through L 2 , R 2 and L 1 .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Based on the previous study with the Marx generator 18 we chose parameters of the circuit producing an "effective" electric field U marx /L > 10 kV/cm with a breakdown delay smaller than 300 -400 ns (where U marx is the Marx output voltage and L is the gap length). Therefore we started the experiments with a gap L = 85 mm and an inductance L 1 > 400 µH, which provides no more than 5% drop of the output Marx voltage during the breakdown delay.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As described in Ref. 18, a chirped pulse amplified laser system emitting at a wavelength of 800 nm is used to produce the filaments between the two electrodes and inside the Marx generator. The laser pulse with energy of 200 mJ, pulse duration of 700 fs and diameter of 30 mm FWHM is focused by a convex lens (focal f = 5 m), generating a bundle of plasma channels over 1.5 m before the geometrical focus of the lens (see characterization of the filament bundle in ref 19).…”

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Prolongation of the lifetime of guided discharges triggered in atmospheric air by femtosecond laser filaments up to 130 μs

Arantchouk

Honnorat

Thouin

et al. 2016

Applied Physics Letters

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Abstract:The triggering and guiding of electric discharges produced in atmospheric air by a compact 100 kV Marx generator is realized in laboratory using an intense femtosecond laser pulse undergoing filamentation. We describe here an approach allowing extending the lifetime of the discharges by injecting a current with an additional circuit. Laser guiding discharges with a length of 8.5 cm and duration of 130 µs were obtained.In the last decade femtosecond laser filaments has proved to be a powerful tool to trigger and guide electric discharges in atmospheric air 1 with gap length of a few meters [2][3][4][5][6] . The weakly ionized plasma column and subsequent low density channel generated by laser filaments allow the precise triggering and guiding of electric discharges between two electrodes with a significant reduction of the breakdown voltage [7][8][9] . This effect is potentially useful for the development of laser lightning rod 4, 10-11 , high-voltage, high-current switches 12 , or virtual plasma antennas [13][14] .For applications such as plasma antennas, extension of the filament plasma lifetime is needed, since the plasma from the filament recombines in a few nanoseconds, seriously limiting the bandwidth of antennas to frequencies v> 10 9 Hz. This can be done using additional femtosecond or nanosecond laser pulses 15-17 but this technique is particularly complex and the resulting plasma is limited to a few µs. Injection of electric current through guided discharges appears to be a more promising way. The duration of the guided discharge mostly depends on the high voltage (HV) source, with a typical duration on the order of 100 ns [2][3][4]14 . In several publications, a Marx generator was used as the HV source to produce meter scale guided discharges. In this case, the discharge duration is defined by the product of the Marx "stack" capacitance C marx and a discharge load R load . In Ref. 18, a compact Marx generator was used to create a ~ 21 cm guided discharge of duration about 600 ns due to the mentioned Marx capacitance C max ~ 2 nF and the discharge load resistance R d ~ 300 Ω. In this letter we describe a method, which allows prolonging this parameter up to 130 µs. The experiment setup is presented in Fig. 1. The circuit is composed of two parts. The first part is a Marx generator described in 18. For this experiment the generator was composed of 5 stages charged up to 20 kV DC, resulting in 100 kV output pulse with a negative polarity. An inductance L 1 was connected to the generator output electrode and served as a load up to the moment when the Marx pulse produces a breakdown in the inter-electrode gap. The Marx output electrode has a cylinder form with an axial hole allowing the laser beam to enter in the generator and to trigger it. The second electrode is a round finger with a 5 mm radius. As described in Ref. 18, a chirped pulse amplified laser system emitting at a wavelength of 800 nm is used to produce the filaments between the two electrodes and inside the Marx generator. The laser pul...

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confidence: 58%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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