Plasma Switch for High-Power Active Pulse Compressor

Abstract

Results are presented from experiments carried out at the Naval Research Laboratory X-band magnicon facility on a two-channel X-band active RF pulse compressor that employed plasma switches. Experimental evidence is shown to validate the basic goals of the project, which include: simultaneous firing of plasma switches in both channels of the RF circuit, operation of quasi-optical 3-dB hybrid directional coupler coherent superposition of RF compressed pulses from both channels, and operation of the X-band magnicon directly in the RF pulse compressor. For incident 1.2 μs pulses in the range 0.63 - 1.35 MW, compressed pulses of peak powers 5.7 - 11.3 MW were obtained, corresponding to peak power gain ratios of 8.3 - 9.3. Insufficient bakeout and conditioning of the high-power RF circuit prevented experiments from being conducted at higher RF input power levels.