Experimental study of polarity dependence in repetitive nanosecond-pulse breakdown

Pulsed breakdown of dry air at ambient pressure has been investigated in the point-plane geometry, using repetitive nanosecond pulses with 10 ns risetime, 20--30 ns duration, and up to 100 kV amplitude. A major concern in this paper is to study the dependence of breakdown strength on the point-electrode polarity. Applied voltage, breakdown current and repetitive stressing time are measured under the experimental conditions of some variables including pulse voltage peak, gap spacing and repetition rate. The results show that increasing the E-field strength can decrease breakdown time lag, repetitive stressing time and the number of applied pulses as expected. However, compared with the traditional polarity dependence it is weakened and not significant in the repetitive nanosecond-pulse breakdown. The ambiguous polarity dependence in the experimental study is involved with an accumulation effect of residual charges and metastable states. Moreover, it is suggested that the reactions associated with the detachment of negative ions and impact deactivation of metastable species could provide a source of primary initiating electrons for breakdown.