Publications

Plasma Cleaning Research for Z

Tang, Ricky T.; Miller, Paul A.; Barnat, Edward V.

Z is a high-current pulsed-power generator located at Sandia National Laboratories. It is capable of delivering 100 - ns, 30 - MA current pulses to loads used for materials studies, weapons-effects simulation, and nuclear-fusion research. Under some conditions, a significant fraction of the current does not reach the load but is shunted across the inter-electrode vacuum gap that leads to the load. That undesirable current loss is thought to be due to excessive plasma generation and flow from the electrodes into the vacuum gap. Much past work suggests that this current loss may be reduced if contaminants on or near the surfaces of the electrodes are removed by plasma discharge cleaning. This report describes light-lab work performed in the past year to evaluate and understand plasma cleaning, and to develop the technology required for future tests on Z.