High Power Laser and Particle Beams, Volume. 36, Issue 11, 115014(2024)

Research on spherical graphite cast iron electrode based gas switch

Wei Shang1,2,3, Jiancang Su1,2、*, Bo Zeng1,2, Rui Li1,2, Gang Wang1,2, Jie Cheng1,2,3, Yongdong Li3, Mingzhu Gao1,2, and Binxiong Yu1,2
Author Affiliations
  • 1Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, Xi’an 710024, China
  • 2Key Laboratory of Advanced Science and Technology on High Power Microwave, Xi’an 710024, China
  • 3Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
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    Gas switches with high power capacity are the first choice for large-scale pulsed power devices at home and abroad, but the self-breakdown voltage jitter due to the randomness of gas discharge has always been the bottleneck problem for pulsed power devices. The electrode is the key to affect the stability and life of the gas switch, and the previous designs had to face the trade-off between low jitter and long life. This paper proposes a spherical graphite cast iron gas switch that takes into account the characteristics of low jitter and long life. Based on the characterization of the spherical graphite cast iron material, it is proposed that the uniform distribution of spherical graphite in the electrode is conducive to the mechanism of improving the breakdown stability of the gas switch, and the spherical graphite is uniformly distributed in the whole electrode, which has the native advantage of long life compared with the surface structure. A single-stage switching stability test experiment was designed and carried out, and the results show that the ductile graphite electrode can effectively reduce the heavy frequency self-breakdown jitter of 3%-4% in the traditional electrode structure to 2.5%. Ultimately, a 5-stage 1 MV equal self-breakdown probability type fully sealed gas switch was designed using low jitter ductile electrodes, and the switching jitter was further reduced to less than 2%. Under the test voltage range of 960-980 kV, discharge current of about 9 kA, and maintenance-free conditions, the switch was tested for 300 000 pulses, and the self-breakdown jitter was maintained at less than 2%, with an optimum of 1.7%. The switch conduction front is less than 5 ns, and the transmission efficiency is more than 90%. The results demonstrate the potential application of spherical graphite cast iron cathodes as gas switches.

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    Wei Shang, Jiancang Su, Bo Zeng, Rui Li, Gang Wang, Jie Cheng, Yongdong Li, Mingzhu Gao, Binxiong Yu. Research on spherical graphite cast iron electrode based gas switch[J]. High Power Laser and Particle Beams, 2024, 36(11): 115014

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    Paper Information

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    Received: Apr. 27, 2024

    Accepted: Aug. 27, 2024

    Published Online: Jan. 8, 2025

    The Author Email: Jiancang Su (sujiancang@nint.ac.cn)

    DOI:10.11884/HPLPB202436.240141

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