Investigation of electron and ion flows in microsecond plasma opening switch on the terawatt power level

Results of experiments with Microsecond Plasma Opening Switch, operating on the level of 1 TW pertinent to studies of electron and ion flows during the high voltage phase are given. It was shown that in the plasma focus type of POS geometry the ion current reaches 30% of the total stored current amplitude. The average energy of ion flow was considerably lower then respective voltage at the POS. Bad reproducibility of high energy fraction of ion flow, high degree of macrodivergence of ion beam could pertain to significant instabilities present during the high voltage phase in the POS.