Stable exploding wire plasma at times larger than electrical current presence

Abstract

Copper gas produced with the exploding wire technique at times much larger than the total current lifetime has been explored, and its excitation temperature estimated from spectrographic data. It has been found that excitation temperature is stable for microseconds after the electrical current finish to flow and dependent only on charging voltage for the conditions of these experiments, with plasma spectra taken at instants more than 10 times longer than total electrical current discharge.