Investigation of Collisional Effects in the Plasma Erosion Opening Switch
Abstract
During the conduction phase of the plasma erosion opening switch (PEOS), current channels in the main body of the plasma have been observed experimentally to be much wider than the collisionless skin depth. In addition, the maximum current carried by the switch before opening (the conduction current) seems to scale roughly linearly with plasma density, n, and switch length, 1. Collisionless PIC code simulations of the plasma switch show current conducted in skin-depth like channels, with the conduction current scaling close to l to the 2/5ths power and the fourth root of n. Here the effect of collisions on the behavior of the PEOS is investigated and shown to bring the PIC simulations and experimental results in closer agreement. In the collisional simulations, wider current channels are observed and the conduction current scales linearly with 1 and as sq root of n with density in anode dominated simulations. Linear scaling with length and density in the cathode dominated case can be inferred. Keywords: Opening switches; Plasma erosion opening switches; Anomalous transport in plasma; Vacuum switches.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 20, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA200319
Entities
People
- J. M. Grossmann
- J. M. Neri
- Paul F. Ottinger
- R. Kulsrud
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory