The Breakdown Characteristics of Single-Gap Pseudospark Discharge Under Nanosecond Pulsed Voltages

Abstract

In this paper, an experimental investigation of pseudospark discharge behaviors was conducted under nanosecond pulsed voltages using a flexible discharge chamber. The breakdown voltages of the pseudospark discharge gap were measured for a wide range of gas pressures, anode-cathode gap distances, and cathode aperture diameters to find the match of gap distance and cathode aperture diameter at a certain gas pressure with the nanosecond pulsed voltage. According to the experimental results, an empirical relationship was obtained. The roles of the parameters in the empirical relationship during the discharge were analyzed. The breakdown characteristics were also consistent with the Paschen's law in the pseudospark under nanosecond pulsed voltages, when the gap distance was replaced by the effective gap distance. In the end, a possible reason was put forward to explain the difference between the empirical relationships obtained under dc voltages and nanosecond pulsed voltages.