Investigation of a High Voltage Lorentz drift based gas discharge switch

Fast high current and voltage switches are very important tools for pulsed power applications. They have for example applications in accelerator laboratories to drive fast injectionand extraction magnets, beam dumps and in quadrupole lenses. Basically, there are two complete different principles used to realise a high power switches. One is based on the use of semiconductors, where as the other is based on a triggered breakdown in gases or in vacuum. Now this contribution gives an introduction in a new kind of gas discharge switch, which consists of a coaxial electrode geometry. Initially the inner electrode serves as anode, the outer as cathode. This switch device is called, based on its underlying effect, as Lorentz Drift Switch (LDS) and works usually with a cold cathode.