Exploding wire method: Difference between revisions

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The '''exploding wire method''' or '''EWM''' {{flag|Soviet_union}} is a way to generate [[Plasma (physics)|plasma]] that consists of sending a strong enough pulse of [[electric current]] through a thin [[wire]] of some [[electric conductivity|electrically conductive]] material. The [[Joule heating|resistive heating]] vaporizes the wire, and an [[electric arc]] through that vapor creates an [[explosion|explosive]] [[shockwave]].

Exploding wires are used as [[detonator]]s for [[explosives]], as momentary high intensity light sources, and in the production of metal [[nanoparticle]]s.

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=== Detonator ===

EWM has found its most common use as a detonator, named the [[exploding-bridgewire detonator]], for nuclear bombs. Bridgewire detonators are advantageous over chemical fuzesfuses as the explosion is consistent and occurs only a few microseconds after the current is applied, with variation of only a few tens of nanoseconds from detonator to detonator.<ref name="Cooper">{{cite book

|last=Cooper

|first=Paul W.

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=== Light Source ===

EWM is an effective mechanism by which to get a short duration high intensity light source. The peak intensity for copper wire, for example, is 9.6·10⁸ candle power/cm².<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Conn|first1=William|title=The Use of "Exploding Wires" as a Light Source of Very High Intensity and Short Duration|journal=Journal of the Optical Society of America|date=October 28, 1949|volume=41|issue=7|pages=445–9|url=http://www.opticsinfobase.org/view_article.cfm?gotourl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eopticsinfobase%2Eorg%2FDirectPDFAccess%2FC2AAEF95-F7D9-36C6-8FD97DC46DA8F1A9_50214%2Fjosa-41-7-445%2Epdf%3Fda%3D1%26id%3D50214%26seq%3D0%26mobile%3Dno&org=University%20of%20California%20Santa%20Barbara%20%28CDL%29|access-date=30 October 2014|doi=10.1364/josa.41.000445|pmid=14851124|url-access=subscription}}</ref> J.A. Anderson wrote in his initial spectrography studies that the light was comparable to a black body at 20,000&nbsp;K.<ref name=anderson>{{cite journal|last1=Anderson|first1=J.A.|title=The Spectral Energy Distribution And Opacity Of Wire Explosion Vapors|journal= Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|date=May 22, 1922|volume=8|issue=7|pages=231–232|doi=10.1073/pnas.8.7.231|pmid=16586882|pmc=1085099|bibcode=1922PNAS....8..231A|doi-access=free}}</ref> The advantage of a flash produced in this way is that it is easily reproducible with little variation in intensity. The linear nature of the wire allows for specifically shaped and angled light flashes and different types of wires can be used to produce different colors of light.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Oster|first1=Gisela K.|last2=Marcus|first2=R. A.|title=Exploding Wire as a Light Source in Flash Photolysis|journal=The Journal of Chemical Physics|date=1957|volume=27|issue=1|pages=189|doi=10.1063/1.1743665|bibcode = 1957JChPh..27..189O |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/11419/1/OSTjcp57a.pdf}}</ref> The light source can be used in [[interferometry]], [[flash photolysis]], quantitative [[spectroscopy]], and [[high-speed photography]].

=== Production of Nanoparticles ===