A LONG CONDUCTION TIME COMPACT TORUS PLASMA OPENING SWITCH

Experiments to form and accelerate compact toroid (CT) plasmas have be en performed on the 9.4 MJ Shiva Star fast capacitor bank at Phillips Laboratory since late 1990. In this paper, we report our theoretical i nvestigations of employing a CT as a very fast opening switch. A parti cular axisymmetric, albeit geometrically complex, switch design is stu died with the help of 2 1/2-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic computer s imulations. This design, called a magnetically-confined plasma opening switch (McPOS), accumulates magnetic energy in an inductive store. Be cause of its intrinsic stability, the switch can conduct current for t en or more ps, and can open in less than 100 ns-substantially less tha n the rise time of the capacitively produced electric current.