Temporal and spatial evolution of air-spark switch plasma investigated by the Mach–Zehnder interferometer

Abstract

An air-spark switch plasma was diagnosed by the Mach–Zehnder laser interferometer with ultra-high spatial and temporal resolution. The interferograms containing plasma phase shift information at different time were obtained. The phase shift distributions of the plasma were extracted by numerically processing the interferograms. The three-dimensional (3D) electron density distributions of the air-spark switch plasma were then obtained. The working process of the air-spark switch was described by analyzing the temporal and spatial evolution of the plasma electron density.