Device for switching high electrical currents at high voltages

: Herziger, G.; Neff, W.; Richter, F.; Lebert, R.

Abstract
Device for switching high electrical currents at high voltages, in particular for plasma sources of high radiation intensity in the X-ray range, having a gas-filled discharge vessel which contains switching electrodes (3, 4) arranged in parallel and spaced with relation to each other, to which high voltages can be applied, said electrodes (3, 4) forming several gas discharge channels (2) composed of aligned electrode openings (2', 2''), with a working point produced by the product of the electrode spacing (a) and the discharge gas pressure on the left branch of the Paschen curve, and with a cathode cavity (1) adjacent to the cathode (4), said cavity having a trigger opening (5) permitting the ignition of a hollow cathode plasma. In order to attain the fast switching in particular of high currents, the device is designed such that the electrodes (3, 4) are formed into a pot-shaped vessel (7) encompassing the cathode cavity (1) within the walls of which gas discharge channels (2) are loc ated opposite each other with about the identical spacing (b) to the cavity centre (6), and whose greatest depth (t) is about the same size as the largest width (w) of the opposite gas discharge channels (2).