Power flow characteristics between a plasma opening switch and an inductive load

Power flow characteristics between a plasma opening switch (POS) and an inductive load were investigated via particle-in-cell simulations based on the experimental parameters. A dynamic switch model was adopted to simulate the POS. The switch voltage and load current from the simulations agree well with the experiments, and electron flow along the anode and the propagation of the low density plasma (about 1012·cm－3) at 1cm/ns from the POS to the load were observed in the simulations. It was shown that larger POS impedance would increase the power transferred to the load. It was inferred that large current loss exists in the discontinuity of the geometrical impedance, which should be avoided in the design．