Modern pulsed power: Charlie Martin and beyond

In this introduction to the Special Issue on pulsed power and its applications, background information is provided for the non-specialist to better understand the many challenges in designing pulsed power systems, and the wide diversity of applications that are now emerging. The approach to providing a tutorial on pulsed power technology is to make available to the reader the paper written by J. C. Martin which appeared in a Special Section of the PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE on pulsed power technology in June 1992. That paper is supplemented in this introduction with additional information that complements many of the invited papers composing this Special Issue.