Relation between secondary ionisation coefficient and electrical breakdown in nitrogen

Abstract

The role of metastables in electrical breakdown processes in a nitrogen-filled (13.33 mbar) diode has been investigated. This investigation was done by measurement of electrical breakdown time delay as a function of passive time tau , electrode gap d and E/p ratio in the diode with the bulk copper electrodes of which one is gold-plated. The results show that the gold film cathode is more sensitive to the secondary electron emission from its surface on metastable impact than that of bulk copper.

The study of the non-radiative life-time of the 1S5metastable states of neon atoms under its own gas pressure of 13.3 mbar

“…The statements above confirm the explanation of the similar behaviour of the curves taken for hydrogen, nitrogen and five rare gases which are presented in this work and in previous publications (BoSan 1978, BoSan and PejoviC 1979, BoSan et a1 1980, PejoviC and BoSan 1981, PejoviC er a1 1981,1982,1983.…”

“…The present study is based on previous investigations of the non-radiative life-times of the metastable states of rare gas atoms and molecules, as well as of nitrogen and hydrogen at various pressures below one bar. The results of these investigations are presented from 1978onwards (BoSan 1978, BoSan and PejoviC 1979, BoSanetall980, PejoviC and BoSan 1981, PejoviC et a1 1981, 1982,1983. The presence of metastables in these research projects was investigated using 'memory curves' i.e.…”

Electrical breakdown in low pressure gases

“…It is worth noting that the results shown in figure 16 are in good agreement with our previous results [59] for the tubes with Au and Cu electrodes, which were also filled by nitrogen, but at pressure of 13 mbar. Memory curves were recorded in τ range of 5-300 s, i.e.…”