3.6 Plasma Devices
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3.6.1 Nonlinear Devices, Dense Plasma Focus
e creation and acceleration of dense plasmas became a “hot” topic in the
1950s for such diverse applications as rocket propulsion, aerodynamics, chemi-
cal synthesis, and power generation. Gow and Ruby (1959) made two devices
that could be operated as a steady state devices (typically 100 kV and 2–3 mA)
as long as the electrodes were water cooled. Otherwise, it would be operated in
a pulse mode using an impulse transformer. Impulse currents could be as high
as 15 A at an indicated (ion gauge) pressure of 12 milliTorr. e other congura-
tion was double-ended with a cathode on each side of the anode. Only one cath-
ode served as a neutron-emitting target. is conguration mini