An investigation of a long sliding spark

Transverse-discharge flashlamp operation: a surface model of gas breakdown as a first step towards representing discharge initiation

“…In particular, the breakdown threshold is equal to 1.6 and 2.4 kV under the pressure of 26 kPa for the static and pulsed modes, respectively. (iv) Qualitatively, the pressure dependence of the surfacebreakdown voltage for Ar is well correlated to that presented in [16]. In contrast, the similar dependence for Xe is essentially nonmonotonic, with a strong spike under the gas pressure of 5 kPa.…”

“…For the surface-breakdown threshold, the experimental values for Ne and Ar under the pressure of 26 kPa differ from the ones evaluated in section 4 by more than a factor of two. Such a difference may also be connected to differences between the conditions of our experiments and those of [16], as well as to the conventional character of evaluations of U surf br based on two straight-line representations of the dependence of U surf br on the gap length l. In any case, the results of our measurements demonstrate that the threshold of near-surface breakdown is significantly lower than that of volume breakdown. In addition, they better reflect the real conditions of operation of a transverse-discharge flashlamp than do the data of other works.…”

“…the gap length l) for any given operating voltage and other parameters, etc. In particular, according to appropriate dependences from [16], for a threefold overvoltage of the gap at 20 kV operating voltage one may expect multichannel discharge firing for a plasma shell diameter up to d 19 cm in Ar under a pressure of p 26 kPa. For reliable predictions with Xe one should repeat the experiments of [16] for Xe.…”

“…The electrical breakdown is also accompanied by the inter-electrode voltage drop which is delayed with respect to the moment of application of the electrical field. Such a model has also been investigated in numerous works including those related to research concerning the use of extended, multi-channel and homogeneous surface discharges as powerful sources of UV and VUV radiation, as well as of low-inductance-operated multi-channel spark gaps in surface discharges [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Let us henceforth refer to this model as the 'surface breakdown model'.…”

“…for surface discharges in He, Ne and Ar were investigated experimentally in [16]. The dependence of U surf br on the gap length l may be roughly approximated by two straight lines, the intersection of which (the so-called critical point) under a gas pressure p 26 kPa is determined by the relations…”