Electron Density and Temperature Measurements by Thomson Scattering in a High-Voltage Laser-Triggered Switch

High-voltage laser-triggered switches (HV-LTS) can deliver kiloampere magnitude currents in nanosecond time frames while having a jitter on the order of only picoseconds to nanoseconds. The most popular model used to simulate the behavior of HV-LTS is the Martin Switch model. However, recent designs of HV-LTS have found inconsistencies in the Martin Switch model that prohibit modeling switches designed to have on-times of hundreds of nanoseconds. The suspected reason for these inconsistencies is the assumptions T. H. Martin used in his derivation, specifically, that the plasma conductivity is constant both spatially and temporally. This study investigates the behavior of plasma conductivity via temporally and spatially-resolved measurements of electron temperature and density by Laser Thomson scattering. We find that the plasma conductivity does have a spatial and temporal dependency during the decay of the plasma channel. Further improvements to the diagnostic setup are necessary to allow earlier time measurements during the switch discharge phase to inform the Martin Model.