We have developed two voltage diagnostics that circumvent many of the difficulties of measuring voltage in magnetically insulated transmission lines driven by terawatt (megavolt and megampere) electrical pulsers. Two versions of simple vacuum capacitive probes use strong magnetic fields to deflect electrons from the anode‐mounted displacement current collector. We then introduce the electron launching voltage monitor as a novel way to measure voltage. This device uses a relationship between anode electric field and electron current launched from a cathode‐mounted perturbation. The electron launching voltage monitor has a large number of advantages over methods commonly used to measure voltage, including large signal level, tolerance to poor vacuum, and nanosecond temporal response. This article shows designs for all these monitors, and presents data from experiments done on the SuperMite pulser at Sandia National Laboratories.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
December 1990
Research Article|
December 01 1990
Time‐resolved voltage measurements in terawatt magnetically insulated transmission lines Available to Purchase
M. E. Savage;
M. E. Savage
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Search for other works by this author on:
C. W. Mendel, Jr.;
C. W. Mendel, Jr.
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Search for other works by this author on:
T. W. Grasser;
T. W. Grasser
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Search for other works by this author on:
W. W. Simpson;
W. W. Simpson
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Search for other works by this author on:
D. M. Zagar
D. M. Zagar
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Search for other works by this author on:
M. E. Savage
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
C. W. Mendel, Jr.
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
T. W. Grasser
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
W. W. Simpson
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
D. M. Zagar
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 61, 3812–3820 (1990)
Article history
Received:
July 30 1990
Accepted:
August 14 1990
Citation
M. E. Savage, C. W. Mendel, T. W. Grasser, W. W. Simpson, D. M. Zagar; Time‐resolved voltage measurements in terawatt magnetically insulated transmission lines. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 December 1990; 61 (12): 3812–3820. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1141506
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
Overview of the early campaign diagnostics for the SPARC tokamak (invited)
M. L. Reinke, I. Abramovic, et al.
Controlled partial gravity platform for milligravity in drop tower experiments
Kolja Joeris, Matthias Keulen, et al.
Refurbishment and commissioning of a dual-band 23/31 GHz tipping
radiometer at potential radio astronomical sites
J. Cuazoson, D. Hiriart, et al.
Related Content
Terawatt-attosecond soft x-ray pulse generation in x-ray free electron laser
AIP Conf. Proc. (August 2019)
PIC simulation of the vacuum power flow for a 5 terawatt, 5 MV, 1 MA pulsed power system
AIP Advances (March 2018)
2 – 20 ns interframe time 2-frame 6.151 keV x-ray imaging on the recently upgraded Z Accelerator: A progress report
Rev. Sci. Instrum. (October 2008)
Development of a spectroscopic technique for simultaneous magnetic field, electron density, and temperature measurements in ICF-relevant plasmas
Rev. Sci. Instrum. (October 2016)
MeV photoelectron spectrometer for ultraintense laser interactions with atoms and molecules
Rev. Sci. Instrum. (July 2019)