Abstract

A pulse power system which can drive an excimer laser at repetition rates of up to 1 kHz has been designed at Maxwell Laboratories. The basic circuit consists of a high voltage, short duration spiking network, and a low voltage flattop sustainer network. The circuits are isolated from each other through the use of saturable inductors. Computer simulations have been performed with a code which accurately models the nonlinear properties of the magnetic switches and their interactions within the circuit. With proper choice of ferrite characteristics, the spiker pulse may be operated with its polarity opposite to or common to that of the sustainer pulse. The difference in performance characteristics of these two modes is principally in the delay time between the end of the spiker pulse and the beginning of the sustainer pulse. In the opposite polarity case there is virtually no delay. High repetition rates are achieved through use of state-of-the-art thyratron switching in both the sustainer and spiker networks.

© 1989 Optical Society of America