KrF laser controlled diffuse discharge opening/closing switches using a photoelimination reaction

Optical control of a diffuse discharge can potentially be used to switch inductive energy storage systems at high repetition rates. A means of optical enhancement of the electron attachment process can hopefully be used as an optically controlled switch. Vinylchloride (C2H3Cl) photoeliminates a vibrationally rotationally excited HCl(v,J) which strongly attaches low-energy electrons. In our experiment, we observed the opening and closing of a diffuse discharge in a mixture of C2H3Cl/He (C2H3Cl:He=0.7:99.3%, total pressure 1.5 Torr) by KrF laser irradiation of 5.7 mJ/cm2 (20 ns full width at half-maximum). Under these conditions, a discharge current of 200 μA could be interrupted with a time constant of 100 μs. The discharge was again initiated by KrF laser irradiation. As a result, both discharge opening and closing by the laser irradiation were demonstrated.