Capillary plasma gun for a high-current plasma-filled diode

Abstract

A capillary type plasma gun designed for generating a plasma channel with a characteristic diam eter of ≈10 mm in a high current relativistic electron diode has been tested. The dynamics of ion flow prop agation and the effect of the plasma source parameters on the current amplitude of the low resistance phase of the plasma filled diode have been studied. A low resistance phase duration of ≈120 ns has been attained at a current of ≈185 kA in the diode based on a unit gun with a 0.4 mm diameter capillary. The possibility of increasing the diode current by using several capillaries in a gun is demonstrated.