Spark gap triggering with photoconductive switches
Photoconductive switches are well suited for triggering spark gaps since the triggering event is short and requires very little energy. Photoswitches offer fast-rising pulses of short duration with voltage levels of several tens of kV and tens of ps jitter and can be very simple in design, whereas typical trigger sources require multiple stages to generate tens of kV needed to effectively trigger a spark gap of the same potential and usually suffer from slow risetimes. This paper presents methods aimed at triggering spark gaps with photoswitches. Both linear and nonlinear photoswitches are discussed and their associated problems are presented.
A compact pulse generator using diode opening switch for engine gas treatment application
In this paper a compact pulse generator is proposed for NOx  removal system using a corona discharge effect from the exhaust gas of engine cars. A compact pulser based on diodes for opening switches and inductive energy storage has been developed. The pulser consists of a pulse compression circuit including a primary low-voltage stored capacitor, a semiconductor closing switch (a thyristor) as its initial switch, a saturable pulse transformer, and secondary high-voltage circuit including a capacitor, opening diodes, and a resistive load. The experiment results of a proposed pulser with resistance of 200 Omega are following: the voltage amplitude is about 21 kV, the rise time (between 0.1~0.9 of amplitude) is about 21 ns, the pulse width in full width at half maximum (FWHM) is about 42 ns
The peculiar thermo-structural behavior of the anionic lipid DMPG.
Aqueous dispersions of the anionic phospholipid dimyristoyl phosphatidylglycerol (DMPG), around 100 mM ionic strength, are known to exhibit a thermal behavior similar to that of the largely studied lipid dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine (DMPC), which undergoes a gel to liquid crystalline phase transition at 23 degrees C, well characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and other methods. However, at low ionic strength, DMPG has been shown to present a large gel-fluid transition region, ranging from 18 to 35 degrees C. This intermediate phase is optically transparent and characterized by a continuous change in membrane packing. Structural properties of the DMPG gel-fluid transition region will be discussed, based on results obtained by several techniques: electron spin resonance (ESR) of spin labels at the membrane surface and intercalated at different depths in the bilayer; light scattering; DSC; small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS); and fluorescence spectroscopy of probes in the bilayer.