Experiments of discharge guiding using strongly and weakly ionized plasma channels for laser-triggered lightning

Yoshinori Shimada; Shigeaki Uchida; Chiyoe Yamanaka; Akihisa Ogata; Tatsuhiko Yamanaka; Zen-ichiro Kawasaki; Etsuo Fujiwara; Yuji Ishikubo; Kinya Kawabata

doi:10.1117/12.375167

11 January 2000 Experiments of discharge guiding using strongly and weakly ionized plasma channels for laser-triggered lightning

Yoshinori Shimada, Shigeaki Uchida, Chiyoe Yamanaka, Akihisa Ogata, Tatsuhiko Yamanaka, Zen-ichiro Kawasaki, Etsuo Fujiwara, Yuji Ishikubo, Kinya Kawabata

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3886, High-Power Lasers in Energy Engineering; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.375167
Event: Advanced High-Power Lasers and Applications, 1999, Osaka, Japan

Abstract

Generation of a long laser-plasma channel capable of triggering and guiding an electrical discharge is a crucial issue for laser-triggering protection system. We make a long plasma channel to increase the probability of triggered lightning by laser. To produce a long laser plasma channel, we propose da new technique called hybrid plasma channel method which combines weakly and strongly ionized plasma channels to maximize laser-energy efficiency of discharge guiding. We investigate the characteristics of the hybrid plasma channels to maximize laser-energy efficiency of discharge guiding. We investigate the characteristics of the hybrid plasma channel method through several laboratory experiments. The weakly ionized channel was generated by UV laser pulses in air. As the number density of electrons in weakly ionized channel is proportional to 1.1 power of laser intensity, nitrogen and oxygen molecules can not attributed to the source of ionized plasma. It is suggested that dissociation process of impurities in air whose density is 10¹¹ - 10¹² cm^-3 plays an important role in plasma formation and leader triggering effect. The 50 percent flashover voltage using the hybrid plasma channel method is lower than that without the weakly ionized plasma channel. It was also found that higher repetition rate of the plasma generation on lowers the V₅₀ furthermore.

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Yoshinori Shimada, Shigeaki Uchida, Chiyoe Yamanaka, Akihisa Ogata, Tatsuhiko Yamanaka, Zen-ichiro Kawasaki, Etsuo Fujiwara, Yuji Ishikubo, and Kinya Kawabata "Experiments of discharge guiding using strongly and weakly ionized plasma channels for laser-triggered lightning", Proc. SPIE 3886, High-Power Lasers in Energy Engineering, (11 January 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.375167

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