Scientific and industrial applications

Since the Second World War, security and defense needs have driven the development of a broad range of high pulsed power (HPP) components and technologies across the world. This expertise may be oriented toward non-military applications in order to address key issues in various fields ranging from fundamental research to industry, including the areas of public health, energy sector and food industry. In order to illustrate the potential of HPP technologies for scientific and industrial applications, this article presents a few examples of achievements and prospective studies: the design of intense pulsed electron beam devices for food-packaging sterilization; the development of Smith-Purcell type electromagnetic sources in the tera-hertz frequency range as prospective imaging and detection devices; isentropic compression with pulsed magnetic field for high pressure material science, that can concern planetology and geophysics; and plasma jets generation for lab-scale astrophysics. (authors)