Design and Preliminary Experimental Results on a Uniform-Field Test Fixture for Power Flow Experiments

Electrodes that produce a uniform electric field across their surfaces are desired for a variety of high-voltage systems, including spark-gap switches and transversely excited atmospheric lasers. Here, the implementation of uniform-field electrodes to a parallel-plate load is described for the study of vacuum power flow under pulsed-power applications. We begin with an overview of general uniform-field geometries and provide an open-source program that generates these geometries as described by Ernst. Following that, a modification to an existing power-flow experimental platform, which adopts a uniform-field geometry, is introduced and its utility is described. Finally, the preliminary experimental results are presented and future steps are outlined.