Pulsed power

Pulsed power is the science and technology of accumulating energy over a relatively long period of time and releasing it instantly, thus increasing the instantaneous power.

The stored energy is released over a very short time scale resulting in a large amount of power being delivered to a load which can be used to study high energy density physics phenomena such as Inertial confinement fusion using a Z-pinch, and plasma physics or to create Electromagnetic radiation.

Other circuit architectures such as Linear transformer drivers or impedance-matched Marx generators typically do not require any pulse compression.

Single pulse energies as high as 100 MJ, power as high as a "few hundred terawatts" with voltages between 10 kV and 50 MV, and currents between 1 kA and 10 MA, have been achieved at least as of 2006.

[1] Railgun is one of the example usage of pulsed power and it is still at research stage due to its complexity.

SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORY'S Z ACCELERATOR, A PULSED POWER FACILITY IN OPERATION.
A time-exposure photograph of electrical flash-over arcs produced over the surface of the water in the accelerator tank as a byproducts of Z operation.These flash-overs are much like strokes of lightning.The Z pulsed power accelerator at Sandia, which began operating in september, 1996, is the world's most powerful and efficient laboratory X-Ray source.It is a modified version of the PBFA II accelerator which was used until 1996 for light ion fusion research.