Optically induced surface flashover switching for the dielectric wall accelerator

Fast, low jitter command triggered switching is key to the successful implementation of the dielectric wall accelerator (DWA). We are studying a UV induced vacuum surface flashover switch for this purpose. We present our initial data using a Nd:YAG (/spl lambda/=0.06 nm) laser incident onto a high gradient insulator surface at 1/spl omega/, 2/spl omega/, 3/spl omega/, and 4/spl omega/. Best 1/spl sigma/ jitter was <1 ns with no degradation of the switch after 500 shots.