TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamics of the pulsed high-current vacuum arc in semiuniform electrode geometry
AU - Robledo-Martinez, Arturo
AU - Espino-Cortes, Fermin P.
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received October 1, 2001; revised August 10, 2002. This work was supported by the Mexican Science Council (CONACYT). A. Robledo-Martinez is with the Energy Department, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, 02200 Mexico City, Mexico (e-mail: a.robledo@ieee.org). F. Espino-Cortes is with ESIME-IPN, U. P. López Mateos, Col. Lindavista, 07738 Mexico City, Mexico. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2002.805403
PY - 2002/10
Y1 - 2002/10
N2 - A vacuum spark develops in the metallic vapor emitted by the electrodes. The plasma thus created experiences contractions and expansions and emits X-rays. We report here an investigation into the initial dynamics of the arc. A fast 1-kJ generator was used for the experiments. The diagnostics employed include optical frame and streak photography, time-resolved filtered X-ray detection, and pinhole X-ray photography. The results obtained indicate that there is plasma column pinching, some of it producing X-radiation. The energy of the X-rays tends to be rather soft and seldom were characteristics lines detected, even when exchanging electrodes, which are made of dissimilar material. This demonstrates that radiative collapse is not attained at this level of energy and that from the point of view of X-ray emission, it is irrelevant what metallic vapors initiate the vacuum arc.
AB - A vacuum spark develops in the metallic vapor emitted by the electrodes. The plasma thus created experiences contractions and expansions and emits X-rays. We report here an investigation into the initial dynamics of the arc. A fast 1-kJ generator was used for the experiments. The diagnostics employed include optical frame and streak photography, time-resolved filtered X-ray detection, and pinhole X-ray photography. The results obtained indicate that there is plasma column pinching, some of it producing X-radiation. The energy of the X-rays tends to be rather soft and seldom were characteristics lines detected, even when exchanging electrodes, which are made of dissimilar material. This demonstrates that radiative collapse is not attained at this level of energy and that from the point of view of X-ray emission, it is irrelevant what metallic vapors initiate the vacuum arc.
KW - Micropinch
KW - Plasma pinch
KW - Vacuum arc
KW - X-ray pulsed sources
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036826832&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TPS.2002.805403
DO - 10.1109/TPS.2002.805403
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0093-3813
VL - 30
SP - 1893
EP - 1896
JO - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
JF - IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
IS - 5 I
ER -