Femtosecond laser triggering of a sub-100 picosecond jitter high-voltage spark gap

Luther, B. M.; Furfaro, Luca; Klix, A.; Rocca, J. J.

doi:10.1063/1.1419036

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This produces a line focus between the electrodes of the spark gap ͑in the focal plane of the 150 mm lens͒ with a width of 20 m and a length, along the axis of the spark gap of 0.5 mm ͑both dimensions are full width at half maximum of the intensity͒. At maximum laser power, the intensity along the axis of the spark gap varies from 10 15 W/cm 2 at the center to 10 13 W/cm 2 at the electrode surfaces, comparable to the intensities used by Luther et al 3 and above the threshold for tunnel ionization ͑Keldysh parameter 7 ␥ Ͻ 1͒ along 80% of the path between the electrodes. A slit is used at the entry port of the spark gap to prevent the edges of the laser pulse from hitting the electrodes.…”

supporting

confidence: 52%

“…A recent improvement in this field was reported by Luther et al 3 who used a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser to trigger the breakdown of a pressurized high-voltage air spark gap at 10 kV and obtained jitter as low as 35 ps. A different technique, namely laserdriven photoconductive switching, has been used to produce pulses with ͑sub-͒picosecond risetime, albeit at lower voltages ͑below ϳ1 kV͒.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Photoconductive switching of a high-voltage spark gap

Brussaard

Hendriks

2005

Applied Physics Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have demonstrated photoconductive switching of a gas-filled spark gap. A femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser was focused in a 1 mm spark gap biased at 4.5 kV. There is a clear transition between triggered operation, when only part of the path between the electrodes is ionized, and photoconductive switching, when the entire length of the gap is ionized directly by the laser. The measured standard deviation of the time fluctuations between the rising edge of the transmitted electrical pulse and the laser was less than 15 ps.

show abstract

supporting

confidence: 52%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Photoconductive switching of a high-voltage spark gap

Brussaard

Hendriks

2005

Applied Physics Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The typical rise time and jitter of laser-triggered high-voltage pulses of the order of 1-500 kV are in the subnanosecond regime. 7,8 Luther et al 9 made pulses of 10 kV with time jitter as low as 35 ps, using a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation of an atmospheric photoconductively switched high-voltage spark gap

Hendriks

Broks

Mullen

et al. 2005

Journal of Applied Physics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report on the experimental investigation of the photoconductively switched gas-filled spark gap. When the laser intensity of a femtosecond laser is high enough (around 1018Wm−2), a plasma can be created that spans the complete distance between the electrodes. The gas-filled spark gap is then closed on a femtosecond time scale, similar to photoconductive switching of a semiconductor switch. Stochastic breakdown processes, such as avalanche and streamer formation that cause the breakdown in laser triggered spark gaps, are passed over, which results in faster rise time and less jitter. Measurements of the switched pulses as a function of laser energy were performed in a 1-mm gap at an applied voltage of 4.5 kV. A clear transition from triggering to switching was measured with increased laser energy. Measurements of the output pulses with the gap filled with nitrogen at 1 atm showed results very similar to measurements in air in the same gap. In the switching regime, the amplitude of the switched pulse did not depend strongly on the laser energy. Measurements at lower applied voltages but with the same gap distance showed that it was possible to switch voltages as low as 10% of the self-breakdown voltage. At low applied voltages, a significant difference between the applied voltage and the output voltage is measured. A possible explanation is given based on the dynamic behavior of the laser-created plasma. The measured rise time and jitter of the switched pulses were both below the resolution of the measurement equipment, i.e., better than 100 and 15 ps, respectively.

show abstract

“…Lasing at 60.8 nm by collisional electron excitation of S VIII [10], collisional recombination in Li III at 13.5 nm [11], and optical-field ionization driven collisional excitation in Pd-like Xe at 41.8 nm [12] has been reported in laser-driven plasma channels created in wall ablated [10,11] and gas filled [12] microcapillaries excited by relatively slow discharge current pulses. Particularly promising is the development of transient collisional lasers using Ne-like or Ni-like ions [10,15,16].Herein we report the characterization of multiply ionized plasma waveguides created by a fast Ar capillary discharge of the type used to develop discharge-pumped collisional soft x-ray lasers [17][18][19] and the demonstration of the guiding of laser pulses with peak intensity up to 2:2 10 17 W cm ÿ2 . In contrast to slow capillary discharges these discharges can reach the Ne-like or Ni-like stage of ionization for several atoms of interest [18].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Synchronization between the capillary discharge and the laser pulse injection was obtained by triggering a pressurized spark gap with a focused 1 mJ, 800 nm, laser pulse compressed to 50 fs. For most of these experiments the jitter was on the order of a few ns, and subns jitter is possible [19]. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Guiding of Intense Laser Beams in Highly Ionized Plasma Columns Generated by a Fast Capillary Discharge

et al. 2004

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have demonstrated the guiding of laser pulses with peak intensities up to 2:2 10 17 W=cm 2 in a 5.5 cm long plasma column containing highly charged Ar ions generated by a fast capillary discharge. A rapid discharge-driven hydrodynamic compression guides progressively lower order modes through a plasma with increasing density and degree of ionization, until the guide collapses on axis. The lowest order mode (FWHM 50 m) is guided with 75% transmission efficiency shortly before the plasma reaches the conditions for lasing in Ne-like Ar. The subsequent rapid plasma expansion forms a significantly leakier and more absorbent guide. The guiding of intense laser beams in plasmas has attracted significant attention [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. This is motivated by the need for extending the interaction length between intense laser pulses and plasmas beyond the limitations set by diffractive defocusing and ionization-induced refraction for important applications such as the generation of intense coherent soft x-ray radiation [9][10][11][12] and wakefield accelerators [13,14]. Preformed index waveguides, plasma channels with an electron density minima on axis, were first demonstrated using the hydrodynamic expansion of a cylindrical plasma following a laser-produced spark [3,4,9]. More recently, several approaches based on electrical discharges have been studied, including plasmas created by discharge ablation of the walls of a microcapillary [5], a discharge through a hydrogen filled microcapillary [6], and the plasma implosion in Z-pinch discharges in helium and methane [7,8].An application of considerable interest for plasma waveguides is the longitudinal excitation of soft x-ray lasers that can potentially result in saturated amplifiers with reduced laser pump energy and increased efficiency [9][10][11][12]. Lasing at 60.8 nm by collisional electron excitation of S VIII [10], collisional recombination in Li III at 13.5 nm [11], and optical-field ionization driven collisional excitation in Pd-like Xe at 41.8 nm [12] has been reported in laser-driven plasma channels created in wall ablated [10,11] and gas filled [12] microcapillaries excited by relatively slow discharge current pulses. Particularly promising is the development of transient collisional lasers using Ne-like or Ni-like ions [10,15,16].Herein we report the characterization of multiply ionized plasma waveguides created by a fast Ar capillary discharge of the type used to develop discharge-pumped collisional soft x-ray lasers [17][18][19] and the demonstration of the guiding of laser pulses with peak intensity up to 2:2 10 17 W cm ÿ2 . In contrast to slow capillary discharges these discharges can reach the Ne-like or Ni-like stage of ionization for several atoms of interest [18]. A rapid compression of the plasma column results from the strong current-induced J B force [17]. A shock wave that originates in the vicinity of the capillary wall propagates towards the axis forming a plasma waveguide of continuously decreasing diameter, and increasing density and...

show abstract

Femtosecond laser triggering of a sub-100 picosecond jitter high-voltage spark gap

Abstract: We have demonstrated sub-100 ps jitter operation of a pressurized high-voltage air spark gap triggered by a femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser. Time delay statistical fluctuations with a standard deviation as low as ϩϪ ϭ0.037 ns were obtained.

Cited by 29 publications

References 19 publications

Photoconductive switching of a high-voltage spark gap

Photoconductive switching of a high-voltage spark gap

Experimental investigation of an atmospheric photoconductively switched high-voltage spark gap

Guiding of Intense Laser Beams in Highly Ionized Plasma Columns Generated by a Fast Capillary Discharge

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About