Fast high-voltage pulse generator with nonlinear transmission line for high repetition rate operation

A new application of the nonlinear transmission line (NLTL) for high-voltage pulse generation is reported. In this NLTL, a rise time of an input pulse voltage of 20-kV amplitude can be reduced from 500 to less than 120 ns. Using this circuit, we demonstrated excitation of a pulsed CO/sub 2/ laser, and obtained output energy of 129 mJ at an efficiency of 4.3%. Moreover, we find that the head-on collision of two solitons is quite effective to generate a high-voltage and short-width pulse. The input pulse is doubled in amplitude and sharpened in width, from 3.6 kV-300 ns to 11 kV-76 ns. With this method, the utilization of semiconductor devices such as the SI thyristor is possible as a primary switching device. Finally, a xenon lamp has been flashed at a repetition rate of 1 kHz.