Verifying current conduction in a low energy plasma

A novel method of generating a low energy plasma utilizing the underlying characteristics of exploding wires was investigated. The plasma was formed by exciting the metallization on samples of polypropylene film with an impulse voltage of 2500 V. A concise method of simultaneously measuring the low energy plasma's current, light intensity, and event duration in the infrared spectrum was performed. The afore mentioned quantities were measured using three independent methods in order to achieve the best representation of the low energy plasma. A streak imaging system was designed, and utilized to capture the time duration of the plasma as a representative image on a digital camera. Pin photodiodes were used to measure the time duration of the infrared spectrum. Current was measured using an inductive probe. Time measurements taken from the photodiodes, streak imaging system, and current monitor all correlated to one another.