IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 40, NO.

10, OCTOBER 2012 2443

High-Voltage Spark Gap in a Regime of
Subnanosecond Switching
Yury D. Korolev and Nikolay M. Bykov
AbstractThis paper describes an investigation of a high-
voltage spark gap in the conditions of subnanosecond switching.
The high-voltage pulsed generator Sinus is used to charge a
coaxial line loaded to a high-pressure spark gap. Typical charging
time for the coaxial line is in a range from 1 to 2 ns, maximum
charging voltage is up to 250 kV, and a range of pressures for the
gap is from 2 to 9 MPa. The theoretical models of the switching
process on subnanosecond time scale are examined. A general
equation for temporal behavior of the gap voltage, which is ap-
plicable for the avalanche model and the RompeWeitzel model
has been obtained. It is revealed that the approach based on
the avalanche model offers a possibility to describe the switching
process only at extremely high overvoltages. The RompeWeitzel
model demonstrates a good agreement with the experimental data
both for the conditions of static breakdown and for the regime of a
high overvolted gap. Comparison of experimental and calculated
voltage waveforms has made it possible to estimate an empirical
constant in the RompeWeitzel model (the price of ionization).
This constant is varied from 420 to 920 eV, depending on the initial
electric eld in the gap.
Index TermsHigh-pressure spark discharge, subnanosecond
discharge, subnanosecond high-voltage generators.
I. INTRODUCTION
A
PROBLEM OF generation of the high-voltage pulses
with a voltage risetime less than a nanosecond attracts
considerable interest [1][8]. In most cases, the electric circuits
for the production of such pulses are based on coaxial lines and
high-pressure spark gaps. A forming line of a subnanosecond
pulsed generator is charged to an initial high voltage for a time
of about a nanosecond. Due to a sharpening spark gap, which
switches the forming line to a load, a voltage risetime at the
load is shortened to the subnanosecond range.
The general principle to sharp a leading edge of a high-
voltage pulse is understandable [1][4]. The conditions of
breakdown in the sharpening gap have to be chosen in such a
manner that the operating pressure and the electric eld reduced
to the pressure be as high as possible. It means that we have
to make the efforts in both decreasing the gap separation and
increasing the gas pressure.
Manuscript received August 25, 2011; revised October 23, 2011; accepted
November 23, 2011. Date of publication December 20, 2011; date of current
version October 5, 2012. This work was supported in part by the Russian
Foundation for Basic Research under Grant 09-08-00374 and in part by the
Interdisciplinary Integrating Project of Siberian Division RAS (Project IS-42).
Y. D. Korolev is with the Institute of High Current Electronics, Russian
Academy of Sciences, 634055 Tomsk, Russia, with Tomsk State University,
634050 Tomsk, Russia, and also with Tomsk Polytechnic University, 634050
Tomsk, Russia (e-mail: korolev@lnp.hcei.tsc.ru).
N. M. Bykov is with the Institute of High Current Electronics, Russian
Academy of Sciences, 634055 Tomsk, Russia.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPS.2011.2178041
However, these requirements come in a contradiction with
each other. Decreasing the gap separation leads to increasing
the electric eld in the gap. Then, the eld can reach such a high
value that the process of the eld emission becomes noticeable
which does not allow increasing the breakdown voltage of the
gap and the reduced electric eld [1], [9][11]. Hence, in every
case, the choice of the operating conditions for the gap is a
challenging problem.
Some aid in solving the aforementioned problem could be
given by the theoretical models, which describe the switching
processes. Earlier, the models had been successfully used for
the nanosecond time range [9], [12]. However, only a limited
number of the works are available where the similar approaches
are developed for the subnanosecond scale [1], [4], [13].
In this paper, the experimental data on the subnanosecond
switching are presented. The theoretical models for the switch-
ing process are discussed. Convenient generalized equations,
which describe the gap voltage behavior, are proposed. Com-
parison is made between the experimental data and the results
of calculations obtained with the proposed method.
II. TYPICAL CONDITIONS OF OPERATION FOR
SUBNANOSECOND SWITCHES
In each particular case, the electric circuit for the forma-
tion of subnanosecond pulses can be rather intricate. This is
particularly related to the generators of bipolar voltage pulses
with a whole pulse duration of about 1 ns [4], [14][16].
The subnanosecond pulse former can include in itself several
switches synchronized with each other. Nevertheless, a variety
of electric circuits in which the switch operates can be reduced
to one of the cases shown in Fig. 1.
In initial conditions, the primary forming line L
F
of the
nanosecond pulse generator is charged to a voltage V
0
. When
the high-pressure spark gap S is switched, an incident wave V
1
with a voltage front duration of about 1 ns or several nanosec-
onds propagates over the transmitting line L
T
. The conditions
in the high-pressure spark gap G are selected to provide the
subnanosecond switching time. It is apparent that the transmit-
ting line of the nanosecond generator L
T
actually serves as
the forming line for the subnanosecond generator. Depending
on a function of the gap G, this gap switches the line L
T
to
the ground [see Fig. 1(a)] or to the same line [see Fig. 1(b)].
At the end of line L
T
, the matched resistor is inserted.
The versions of voltage behavior V (t) at the gap G are pre-
sented schematically in Fig. 2. One of the regimes corresponds
to the conditions when a front duration of the incident wave
0093-3813/$26.00 2011 IEEE
2444 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 40, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2012
Fig. 1. General principle of obtaining a subnanosecond switching time in the
gap G.
Fig. 2. Voltage at the gap G in the prebreakdown stage and in the stage of
breakdown.
is less than the time lag to breakdown t
d
[see Fig. 2(a)]. The
incident wave of amplitude V
1
= V
0
/2 is doubled at the end of
line L
T
so that a voltage V
0
is applied to the electrodes of the
gap G. After a certain time lag, at instant t
d
, the breakdown
process starts in the gap G, and the voltage at the electrodes
collapses with a characteristic time less than 1 ns. Then, a
time interval t t
d
is treated as a prebreakdown stage, and for
t > t
d
, we speak of breakdown development [17].
The instant of time lag t
d
is often associated with the
situation when a voltage at the gap V (t
d
) 0.9 V
0
. In most
cases, the voltage at which the breakdown arises is higher than
the static breakdown voltage V
st
. In other words, the gap G is
overvolted.
Fig. 2(b) shows the case when the front of the incident wave
is larger than the time lag to breakdown. If the breakdown in the
gap G was absent, the voltage V (t) would corresponded to the
dashed line V
g
(t). Voltage V
g
(t) can be interpreted as a voltage
of an external pulsed power supply that charges the forming line
Fig. 3. Equivalent electric circuit for the switches operating in accordance
with Fig. 1.
Fig. 4. Terminal part of the pulsed generator intended for forming a high-
voltage pulse with a subnanosecond voltage risetime. (1) Oil-lled forming line
of subnanosecond generator. (2) Gas-lled coaxial line with the high-pressure
sharpening switch (5). (3) Insulator. (4) Load unit with resistor .
L
T
. The breakdown process develops at the front of the voltage
pulse V
g
(t). At a certain instant of time t
d
, the voltage at the
gap V (t) reaches its maximum. Then, it is reasonable to treat
the instant t
d
as the time lag to breakdown, and a voltage V
br
is
actually a pulsed breakdown voltage.
The previously described regimes correspond to an equiva-
lent electric circuit shown in Fig. 3.
The current in the circuit i(t) is determined by
i(t) =
V
g
(t) V (t)
z
(1)
where z is the equivalent impedance of the cable lines
L
F
and L
T
.
If the impedances of the lines L
F
and L
T
are equal to each
other and equal to , then, for the conditions in Fig. 1(a), we
imply that z = and, for the conditions in Fig. 1(b), z = 2.
III. EXPERIMENTAL ARRANGEMENT AND OBTAINED DATA
Schematic of the arrangement for our particular experiments
is shown in Fig. 4. The oil-lled pulse-forming line 1 actu-
ally represents the transmitting line L
T
for the high-voltage
nanosecond generator Sinus [18], [19]. The gas-lled line 2 is
the continuation of line 1. Correspondingly, the incident wave
V
1
with the leading edge of about 2 to 3 ns propagates in these
lines.
The high-pressure sharpening gap 5 is inserted in the inner
conductor of line 2 in such a manner that the end edges of
the inner conductor serve as the electrodes for the gap. The
geometrical sizes of the described arrangement are as follows:
The outer conductor of line 2 is 60 mm, the inner conductor is
42 mm, and the gap separation in the switch d = 1 mm.
The voltage in the forming line 1 is recorded with a use of
the capacitor probe V
c
and the oscilloscope Tektronix 7404.
An example of the voltage waveform is shown in Fig. 5. In
this gure, V
1
is the amplitude of the incident wave in lines
1 and 2. The voltage 2V
1
is the maximum voltage, which
KOROLEV AND BYKOV: HIGH-VOLTAGE SPARK GAP IN REGIME OF SUBNANOSECOND SWITCHING 2445
Fig. 5. Typical voltage waveform obtained with the use of the capacitor probe.
Fig. 6. Voltage at the sharpening gap 5 for different pressures (operating gas
in the switch is nitrogen).
would be applied to the gap 5 if the breakdown in the gap was
absent (with taking into account the doubling of the incident
wave). Then, the time t
2
corresponds to the instant of starting
breakdown in the sharpening gap so that V
2
is the pulsed
breakdown voltage V
br
[see Fig. 2(b)].
Based on the aforementioned measurements, we can readily
reconstruct the voltage behavior V (t) at the gap 5 [i.e., at the
sharpening gap G in Fig. 2(b)]. The corresponding data for
different nitrogen pressures in the switch are shown in Fig. 6.
It is seen that, with an initial voltage risetime on nanosecond
scale, we obtain the switching time, i.e., the voltage drop at the
sharpening gap during the switching, on subnanosecond scale.
The conditions of operation for gap G are illustrated in
Table I. In this table, we also show the static breakdown voltage
V
st
estimated from Paschens law for a uniform electric eld
(the secondary emission coefcient is taken as = 10
4
). It
is evident that the estimation gives an upper level of electric
eld without taking into account the eld emission and the
nonuniformity of the eld distribution over the gap. However,
the overvoltage coefcient V
br
/V
st
seems to be convenient for
qualitative interpretations.
The shortest switching time (of about 0.25 ns) is obtained
for a pressure p = 2 MPa, and an increase in the pressure
TABLE I
CONDITIONS OF BREAKDOWN IN THE SHARPENING GAP
CORRESPONDING TO THE WAVEFORMS IN FIG. 6
does not allow decreasing the switching time. The reason is
that, when we increase the pressure, both the reduced electric
eld E
br
/p and the ratio V
br
/V
st
decrease. Such a behavior is
associated with the fact that an average electric eld in the gap
approaches to a value of 2 MV/cm and the process of the eld
emission starts playing an important role in the discharge initia-
tion [9][11].
IV. THEORETICAL MODELS FOR SWITCHING PROCESS
A. Avalanche Model
Most widely used theoretical models for switching in
nanosecond time range are the avalanche model and the
RompeWeitzel model [1], [4], [9]. When using the models,
we imply that just before the beginning of the switching stage,
a plasma column with an initial plasma density n
0
and with a
certain cross-sectional area S bridges the gap. The properties
of the plasma that has been generated to the completion of
prebreakdown stage (to instant t
d
) play a decisive role in the
subsequent switching process in the gap. One of the situations is
related to the conditions when the plasma column area is rather
large and a plasma density in the column is not extremely high
(n
0
10
13
cm
3
). This situation is characteristic of the so-
called volume discharges [9], [10], [20][22]. A large area of
the discharge plasma column is provided here due to external
generation of the initiating electrons in the gap volume.
For moderate initial plasma density n
0
, a growth of gap
conductivity in the switching stage occurs due to the process
of impact ionization, which is characterized by the Townsend
coefcient . Then, an increase in plasma density n(t) obeys
dn
dt
= vn (2)
where v is the electron drift velocity.
As applied to the electric circuit that includes in itself the
power supply V
0
, the cable impedance z, and the switching gap
G [see Figs. 1 and 2(a)], the current i(t) can be dened as
i(t) =
V
0
V (t)
z
= i(0) exp

0
v dt

(3)
where the initial current i(0) at the instant t
d
is determined by
the initial plasma density n
0
and by the area of the discharge
column S
i(0) = en
0
vS. (4)
A convenient differential equation for V (t) can be ob-
tained if we use the linear approximation for the electron drift
2446 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 40, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2012
velocity
v = K
V (t)
pd
. (5)
Then, after differentiating (3) over t and excluding the expo-
nential factor, we arrive at the following equation:
dV
dt
=

1
V
V
0

K
pd
V
2
. (6)
The aforementioned equations have been derived in an as-
sumption that the voltage of external generator V
g
(t) = V
0
[see
Fig. 2(a)]. For the conditions such as the breakdown occurring
at the front of the pulsed generator [see Fig. 2(b)], the equations
have to be corrected.
The correction for the case when the external generator
produces a voltage pulse V
g
(t) can be readily made by means
of simple manipulations. Then, the nal equation for V (t) will
take the form
dV
dt
=

1
V
V
g

1
v
dV
g
/dt
V
g

K
pd
V
2
. (7)
The avalanche model had been successfully used for the
calculation of the switching process in a glow-type discharge
(so-called volume discharges in the gas lasers [9]).
B. RompeWeitzel Model
This model is used to describe a growth in conductivity
for a spark channel. In generally accepted form, the channel
conductivity is related to the current i(t) by the following
expression [1], [4], [17]:
=
1
d

2a
p
t

0
i
2
dt

1/2
(8)
where a is an empirical constant.
The primary assumption for obtaining (8) is that the plasma
conductivity is directly proportional to an inner energy intro-
duced in the channel [17].
Equation (8) can be obtained from the following considera-
tions. Let us write the relation which shows that the conductiv-
ity of a channel of unit length
1
is directly proportional to the
inner energy

1
=
a
p
t

0
iE dt (9)
where electric eld in plasma E = i/
1
.
Then, the differentiation of (9) and elimination of E result in

1
d
1
dt
=
a
p
i
2
. (10)
The solution of this equation with taking into account that

1
= d leads to the RompeWeitzel formula in the form (8).
On the other hand, for the calculation of the voltage at the
gap V (t), it would be convenient to use an equation in the
same form as (6). We obtain such an equation due to simple
manipulations. The relation for conductivity can be written as

1
=
i
E
=
SenK
p
(11)
so that substituting
1
into (10) gives us
dn
dt
=
a
K
E
KE
p
n = vn. (12)
It is seen that, in the last equation, the impact ionization
coefcient is introduced as
=
a
K
E =
1
b
E. (13)
The new constant b has illustrative physical meaning. This is
the price of ionization, i.e., an energy, which is spent for the
single ionization event expressed in volts. Hence, the earlier
derived equations (6) and (7) hold true for the RompeWeitzel
model if the coefcient is taken from (13).
Equation (7) demonstrates that the voltage at the gap reaches
a maximum value that is denoted in Fig. 2(b) as the pulsed
breakdown voltage V
br
. This voltage can be found from the
relation
V
g
= V
br

1 +
b
K
1
(V
br
/pd)
2
p
dV
g
/dt
V
br

. (14)
On the basis of (6), a convenient expression for switching
time can be derived
t
s
= V
0

dV
dt

1
m
10
b
K
1
(V
0
/pd)
2
p
(15)
where (dV/dt)
m
is the maximum steepness in the voltage drop

dV
dt

K
bpd
2
V
3
0
1
4

3
4

3
. (16)
V. COMPARISON WITH THE EXPERIMENT
AND DISCUSSION
The previously described models imply that the switching
process starts at an instant of time t = 0 when, due to a
current i(0), the voltage drop at the gap becomes noticeable
(for example, V (t
d
) = 0.9 V
0
). As noted earlier, the drop in
the gap voltage is largely determined by the spatial structure
of the discharge that has been formed to the beginning of the
switching process.
Equation (4) clearly demonstrates that the larger the area of
the discharge column S in the initial instant of time, the smaller
the initial plasma density. Numerous experimental data show
that, for n
0
10
13
cm
3
, the switching process is adequately
described in terms of the avalanche model [9]. In fact, this case
is associated with the volume discharge when the conditions of
the ionizations do not differ essentially from that in the electron
avalanches.
The simple estimates show that the experimental data in
Fig. 6 cannot be interpreted in the framework of the avalanche
KOROLEV AND BYKOV: HIGH-VOLTAGE SPARK GAP IN REGIME OF SUBNANOSECOND SWITCHING 2447
Fig. 7. Comparison of the experimental and calculated waveforms.
model as far as the initial reduced electric elds E
br
/p (see
Table I) are not high enough to provide the subnanosecond
switching.
However, the data seem to be in an agreement with the
RompeWeitzel model if we properly t the price of ionizations
b. The example of such a tting is shown in Fig. 7, where
b = 640 V for p = 4 MPa and b = 920 V for p = 9 MPa.
Good agreement with the experiment means that the growth
in conductivity corresponds to the conditions in a spark channel
with a high plasma density. When current ows through a
small-diameter channel, the avalanche model fails to predict the
current rise in the gap. The question whether the experimen-
tal dependences /p(E/p) are applicable to a gas-discharge
plasma is reduced to the question as to what extent the con-
ditions in this type of plasma are correlated to the experimental
conditions under which the impact ionization coefcient is
measured.
A misuse of can be caused by two circumstances. When
the plasma density is high, the excited states are destroyed
through the quenching collisions of the excited particles with
the electrons. As a result, the radiation losses from the plasma
decrease, and the average electron energy may become higher
than that in the classical electron avalanches for a given E/p.
Aside from that with a high specic energy introduced into
the gas, the density of the metastable atoms increases, thereby
increasing the contribution from the processes of stepwise
ionizations.
In terms of the switching model, both the aforementioned
circumstances result in decreasing the price of ionizations in
the spark channel as compared to the volume discharge.
The experimentally tted price of ionizations for the ex-
perimental conditions under discussion is shown in Fig. 8
(curve 1). Curve 2 shows the price of ionizations E/ calcu-
lated for the classical electron avalanche in nitrogen.
It is seen that, for a range of reduced electric eld E/p
in a vicinity of static breakdown, the price of ionizations for
the avalanche model is much higher than that for the spark
discharge plasma. This is the reason why a volume discharge
is not able to provide the subnanosecond switching process
in the condition of static breakdown. For the overvolted gap,
Fig. 8. Price of ionizations for the (1) RompeWeitzel model and for the (2)
avalanche model.
curve 2 seems like a continuation of curve 1, i.e., the
price of ionization in the avalanche model and that in the
RompeWeitzel model become comparable. In other words, the
operation of the sharpening gap in a regime of spark channel
offers a possibility to obtain the subnanosecond switching time
in a wide range of reduced electric elds.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the high-pressure spark gap was investigated
as applied to the problem of generation of subnanosecond
high-voltage pulses. Voltage risetime at the gap was from 1
to 2 ns, the maximum voltage value was up to 250 kV, and a
range of pressures was from 2 to 9 MPa. In such conditions, a
subnanosecond switching has been obtained with the shortest
switching time of 0.25 ns at a pressure of 2 MPa.
The general equation for voltage temporal behavior at the
gap has been derived. In terms of this equation, an important
parameter, which determines the switching process for a certain
initial voltage at the gap, is the price of ionization, i.e., the
energy expenses for the single ionization event.
Interpretation of the data on the subnanosecond switching
based on the theoretical models is presented. It is shown that the
avalanche model offers a possibility to describe the switching
process only at extremely high overvoltages. The Rompe
Weitzel model demonstrates a good agreement with the exper-
iment both for the conditions of static breakdown and for the
regime of a high overvolted gap. Comparison of experimental
and calculated voltage waveforms has made it possible to esti-
mate the price of ionization as applied in the RompeWeitzel
model. This value is varied from 420 to 920 eV, depending on
the initial reduced electric eld in the gap.
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the spark discharge, Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR, vol. 253, no. 3,
pp. 606609, 1980.
[21] A. V. Kozyrev, Y. D. Korolev, G. A. Mesyats, Y. N. Novoselov, and
I. A. Shemyakin, Contraction of a volume discharge, initiated by
ultraviolet-radiation in Ar-SF
6
mixtures, Zhurnal Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki,
vol. 51, no. 9, pp. 18171822, Sep. 1981.
[22] L. P. Babich, T. V. Loiko, and V. A. Tsukerman, High-voltage nanosec-
ond discharge in dense gases developing with runaway electrons regime
under high overvoltages, Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk, vol. 160, no. 7,
pp. 4982, Jul. 1990.
Yury D. Korolev received the M.S. and Ph.D. de-
grees from Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia,
in 1967 and 1973, respectively, and the D.Sc. de-
gree in physics from the Institute of High Current
Electronics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Tomsk,
in 1985.
Since 1977, he has been with the Institute of
High Current Electronics, Russian Academy of Sci-
ences, where he is currently the Head of the Low-
Temperature Plasma Laboratory. He is also currently
a Professor with Tomsk State University and with
Tomsk Polytechnic University. His current research interests include fundamen-
tals of gas discharges and discharge applications.
Nikolay M. Bykov was born in the USSR, on February 9, 1960. He received
the M.S. degree in physics from the Department of Physics, Tomsk State
University, Tomsk, Russia, in 1983.
He has been with the Institute of High Current Electronics, Russian Academy
of Sciences, Tomsk, since graduation. His current research interests include the
physics of pulsed gas discharge and discharge applications.