The first switch may be allowed to spontaneously break down (sometimes called a "self break") during charging if the absolute timing of the output pulse is unimportant. However, it is usually intentionally triggered once all the capacitors in the Marx bank have reached full charge, either by reducing the gap distance, by pulsing an additional trigger electrode (such as a Trigatron), by ionising the air in the gap using a pulsed laser, or by reducing the air pressure within the gap.