Influence of triggering energy in lowering breakdown voltage of a trigatron spark-gap

Abstract

The reduction of breakdown voltage of a trigatron air-gap is related to the charge and energy of the triggering spark. Experiments were performed on a sphereplate trigatron spark-gap with the purpose of determining any direct dependence on lowering of breakdown voltage of either of the above characteristics. The experimental results have shown that the breakdown voltage reduces linearly as the triggering energy increases, irrespective of capacitor size or triggering voltage, and lead to the conclusion that the reduction of breakdown voltage depends directly on the energy of the triggering spark.