Picosecond Breakdown in High-Voltage Open Pulse Discharge With Enhanced Secondary Electron Emission

A 300-ps breakdown was registered in the experiments in the high-voltage open discharge with counter-propagating electron-beams with applying voltage pulses with rise times in 10-20 ns range. Discharge operates between two cathodes and grid-anode in the midplane at 10-35 Torr in helium at voltage 5-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 45; no. 12; pp. 3202 - 3208
Main Authors Schweigert, I. V., Alexandrov, A. L., Gugin, P. P., Lavrukhin, M. A., Bokhan, P. A., Zakrevsky, D. E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.12.2017
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Breakdown voltage
Cathodes
Collision dynamics
Computer simulation
Discharge
Discharges (electric)
Electric potential
Electrode materials
Electron beams
Electron emission
Electrons
Enhanced secondary electron emission
Gas breakdown
Gas pressure
Growth rate
Helium
High-voltage pulse discharge
Ionization
Ions
Particle in cell technique
Plasma
secondary electron emission
Silicon base alloys
Silicon carbide
subnanosecond breakdown
Voltage pulses
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Summary:A 300-ps breakdown was registered in the experiments in the high-voltage open discharge with counter-propagating electron-beams with applying voltage pulses with rise times in 10-20 ns range. Discharge operates between two cathodes and grid-anode in the midplane at 10-35 Torr in helium at voltage 5-13 kV. It is shown in Particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision (PIC MCC) simulations that the contributions of electrons, ions and energetic atoms in ionization and excitation processes are important for current development. The influence of different emissive cathode materials (titanium, silicon carbide, and CuAlMg-alloy) on evolution of discharge current is studied in the experiment and in kinetic PIC MCC simulations. The secondary electron emission from the cathodes is found to be a dominant process at the final stage of the breakdown. The current growth rate is larger (up to 700 A/cm 2 ns) for the cathode with a higher secondary electron emission yield. By choosing the cathode material, applied voltage amplitude and gas pressure, the characteristic time of the gas breakdown can be reduced.
ISSN:0093-3813
1939-9375
DOI:10.1109/TPS.2017.2766888