Light Effect in Semiconductor Bridge Plasma Ignition

Heat is considered to play an important role in Semiconductor Bridge (SCB) plasma ignition. Nevertheless, in this paper a non-heat effect is reported for SCB ignition of primary explosives. An initial comparison showed that there is no reasonable correlation between the ease of plasma ignition and the 5-s explosion temperature. Meanwhile the addition of Pb3O4 was found to make lead styphnate (LS) more active to SCB plasma ignition whereas the heat decomposition of this mixture was not accelerated. In terms of the phenomena mentioned above and the response of primary explosives to SCB plasma, we propose an effect of light in SCB plasma ignition. The free radical concentration change indicates that light enhances the activity of primary explosives in SCB plasma ignition. Regarding the mixture of LS and Pb3O4, the additive itself does not make LS sensitive to the SCB plasma. However, the supplement makes LS active under light exposure. As a result, the effect of light on SCB plasma ignition was confirmed by the experiments conducted in this study. This paper provides a new understanding of SCB plasma ignition from the viewpoint of explosives, which is of importance for the design of SCBs.