Scientists define the characteristics of trigatron plasma jet

Spark gaps have wide applications in high-voltage pulse forming network, Marx generators and particle accelerators. However, the current working coefficient of gas-insulated trigatron spark gaps generated using conventional technologies is too high for practical applications. Scientists seek to develop new triggering technology for generating spark gaps with lower working coefficients.

Chen et al. explored the characteristics of a trigatron spark gap triggered by plasma jet. They studied the development of the plasma jet in relate to the gap distance, working coefficient and plasma jet ejection properties as the jet progressed through the expanding, steady and dissipating phases.

The researchers focused on the factors that trigger the breakdown of the spark gap, which affects the working coefficient. They found that as gap distance increased, the spark gap required longer plasma jets, resulting in increased breakdown delay and jitter. They found that the breakdown usually occurs between the front edge of the plasma jet and the anode surface, where the electric field distortion is at its greatest and produce different plasma discharge patterns.

The researchers also found that a more stable plasma jet can be obtained when induced by polyethylene surface discharge.

According to author Li Chen, these discoveries could be used to guide the over-voltage protection of the electric equipment design in high-voltage synthetic circuits.

“The trigatron spark gap triggered by the injected plasma has the potential to meet the low pre-fire rate demand of the linear transformer driver,” said Chen.

Source: “Study on the breakdown characteristics of the trigatron spark gap triggered by plasma jet,” by Li Chen, Hao Fan, Ruifeng Cao, Weihong Yang, and Ying Li, AIP Advances (2019). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5128773 .