The extensive development of electronics and automation equip ment defines the scientific and technical significance of all types of high-density energy converters that are used in electronic and automatic equipment. A powerful pulsed discharge in gas is one type of conversion of electrical energy into extremely intense optical radiation. In order to characterize the possibilities inherent in such a discharge, it suffices to recall that high-power lasers were first developed by using flashlamps based on precisely this kind of discharge. The correct use of existing types of flashlamps, work toward developing new types of flashlamps, and the solution of new problems by using such flashlamps require a knowledge of the physical processes that occur in them and the relationship between their technical characteristics and their design data and power-supply parameters. An acquaintance with the variety of existing flashlamps and the cir cuits used in the equipment employing them also is needed.
