Resonant laser diagnostics of intense pulsed ion diodes

Laser-based diagnostic methods are developed to improve our understanding of the behavior of flashover-type magnetically-insulated diodes. For the quantitative estimation of the particle density, a resonant interferometric and a laser resonance scattering method are developed. These techniques could allow direct determination of the particle distribution in the diode gap. A new diode which uses actively produced source plasma is tested for the investigation of the anode plasma effect on the diode characteristics.