Nanosecond-Pulse Breakdown in Gases

Abstract

A theory describing the formative period of breakdown in gases following the sudden application of a dc electric field has been developed and applied to the design of experiments to measure lag times in nine gases. It is shown analytically that under certain conditions pulsed-dc and pulsed-microwave breakdown are directly comparable. A pulsed-dc experimental system is described which permits measurements of the formative period over a wide range of applied field, gas pressure, and gap space. For those gases where sufficient basic data are available, theoretical and experimental results are in good agreement.