Laser-triggered flashover characteristics of insulations in vacuum condition under pulsed voltage

The surface flashover characteristics of insulations are studied, which are used in the laser-triggered surface flashover switch in vacuum. The experimental platform of laser-triggered surface flashover under pulsed voltage was built in the laboratory. Based on the platform, the experiment of laser-triggered surface flashover was carried out using flat electrodes and three kinds of column insulations, whose materials are nylon, polycarbonate and Al2O3, respectively. The results show that the self-flashover voltage of polycarbonate is the highest, and flashover delay time and jitter time decrease with the increase of pulsed voltage and laser energy density. With laser trigger, the jitter time of the insulations is about 1 ns and the jitter time of polycarbonate is the lowest. The delay time