Hollow cathode effects in charge development processes in transienthollow cathode discharges

A detailed experimental study of space charge formation and ionization growth in transient hollow cathode discharges (THCD) is presented. The experiment was performed with an applied step voltage up to 30 kV, with rise time less than 50 ns. The discharge was operated in different gases, at pressures in the range 50-750 mTorr, with cathode apertures ranging from 1 to 5 mm diameter and 5 to 20 mm long, with 10 cm electrode separation. Spatial charge formation, both in the hollow cathode region (HCR) and inter electrode space, has been studied with a capacitive probe array. Properties of high energy electron beams have been measured with a beam-target scintillator-photomultiplier arrangement. Detailed correlations of the electron beam evolution with the charge probe signals inside and outside the HCR clearly demonstrate the role of the electron beam in the initial formation and late evolution of a virtual anode and, in turn, the field enhanced ionization when the anode potential is brought close to the HCR. These results clearly identify the different regimes in which the Hollow Cathode plays a significant role in ionization growth in the inter electrode space and in the processes which eventually lead to electric breakdown     

Guided ionization waves: Theory and experiments

This review focuses on one of the fundamental phenomena that occur upon application of sufficiently strong electric fields to gases, namely the formation and propagation of ionization waves–streamers. The dynamics of streamers is controlled by strongly nonlinear coupling, in localized streamer tip regions, between enhanced (due to charge separation) electric field and ionization and transport of charged species in the enhanced field. Streamers appear in nature (as initial stages of sparks and lightning, as huge structures—sprites above thunderclouds), and are also found in numerous technological applications of electrical discharges. Here we discuss the fundamental physics of the guided streamer-like structures—plasma bullets which are produced in cold atmospheric-pressure plasma jets. Plasma bullets are guided ionization waves moving in a thin column of a jet of plasma forming gases (e.g., He or Ar) expanding into ambient air. In contrast to streamers in a free (unbounded) space that propagate in a stochastic manner and often branch, guided ionization waves are repetitive and highly-reproducible and propagate along the same path—the jet axis. This property of guided streamers, in comparison with streamers in a free space, enables many advanced time-resolved experimental studies of ionization waves with nanosecond precision. In particular, experimental studies on manipulation of streamers by external electric fields and streamer interactions are critically examined. This review also introduces the basic theories and recent advances on the experimental and computational studies of guided streamers, in particular related to the propagation dynamics of ionization waves and the various parameters of relevance to plasma streamers. This knowledge is very useful to optimize the efficacy of applications of plasma streamer discharges in various fields ranging from health care and medicine to materials science and nanotechnology.     

Measurement of the Dynamic Displacement Current as a New Method of Study of the Dynamics of Formation of a Streamer at a Breakdown of Gases at a High Pressure

The dynamics of formation of streamers in a “needle–plane” gap filled with air at atmospheric pressure has been studied. It has been shown that the time dependence of the dynamic displacement current measured by either a current shunt or a collector placed behind a grid electrode is determined by the rate of variation of the shape and dimensions of a streamer. The presence of a single peak on oscillograms of the dynamic displacement current means that a ball streamer is formed in the gap and does not cross the gap during the time of voltage application. The presence of two peaks on oscillograms of the dynamic displacement current means that the ball streamer crosses the gap and reaches the opposite electrode. In this case, the ball streamer is usually transformed to a cylindrical one. It has been shown that the measurement of the dynamic displacement current makes it possible to determine the time dependence of the electric field strength near the planar electrode.     

Cluster formation processes investigated by linearly chirped spectral scattering

By employing linearly chirped spectral scattering technique, the time-resolved formation processes of argon clusters have been investigated. The redshifts of scattering spectra as a function of backing pressure as well as the time delay between the laser and the firing switch of the cluster flow have been measured. It has been found that very large-size cluster sources with very low gas density can be produced by adiabatic expansion of gases at low pressures through a conical nozzle into vacuum. It can be used as clean and important cluster target.     

Generation of Electron Beams in the Range of Forevacuum Pressures

This paper presents the results of a study on the generation of electron beams at gas pressures ranging from 0.01 to 0.1 Torr. The fact that this range of pressures is attainable with mechanical pumps only has provoked interest in this problem. To generate an electron beam, use is made of a plasma source based on a hollow-cathode discharge in combination with a plane-parallel acceleration gap. In the given range of pressures, the peculiarities of emission and acceleration of electrons are related to the high probability of ionization of the gas in the acceleration gap and to the formation of an ion flow propagating toward the electron beam. This causes a decrease in discharge operating voltage and also an increase in plasma density in the emission region. Two types of breakdown are observed in the acceleration gap: an interelectrode breakdown and a breakdown in the plasma–electrode system. The designed electron source allows one to obtain beams of cylindrical cross section with currents of up to 1 A and energies of up to 10 keV.     

Probe Measurements of Parameters of Streamers of Nanosecond Frequency Crown Discharge

Investigations of the parameters of single streamers of nanosecond frequency corona discharge, creating a voluminous low-temperature plasma in extended coaxial electrode systems, are performed. Measurements of the parameters of streamers were made by an isolated probe situated on the outer grounded electrode. Streamers were generated under the action of voltage pulses with a front of 50–300 ns, duration of 100–600 ns, and amplitude up to 100 kV at the frequency of 50–1000 Hz. The pulse voltage, the total current of the corona, current per probe, and glow in the discharge gap were recorded in the experiments. It was established that, at these parameters of pulse voltage, streamers propagate at an average strength of the electric field of 4–10 kV/cm. Increasing the pulse amplitude leads to an increase in the number of streamers hitting the probe, an increase in the average charge of the head of a streamer, and, as a consequence, an increase in the total streamer current and the energy introduced into the gas. In the intervals up to 3 cm, streamer breakdown at an average field strength of 5–10 kV/cm is possible. In longer intervals, during the buildup of voltage after generation of the main pulse, RF breakdown is observed at Е_av ≈ 4 kV/cm.     

The impulse dielectric behavior of N2 gas in sphere-plane gap

The focus of this work has been on the pre-breakdown phenomena and the breakdown characteristics of N₂ gas in a sphere-plane gap under various impulse voltages. Both electrical and optical experimental investigation methods were used. Following parameters were considered: gas pressure range from 0.2 to 0.6 MPa, electric field utilization factor of the electrode configuration 71%, positive and negative impulse waveforms with the rise time of 500 ns, 1.2 μs and 180 μs. The observed discharge processes before the breakdown through the light emission images by the ICCD camera are in good agreement with the streamer mechanism. Under both polarity stresses, discharges are initially concentrated around the tip of the sphere and later pointing towards the earth electrode. However, negative streamers are thinner and more diffuse. As expected, the breakdown voltages for negative polarity are lower than those for positive polarity regardless of the gas pressure and shape of the applied impulse voltage. The breakdown voltage is increased with shortening the rise time of pulse waveforms. As a substitute for SF₆, N₂ gas under pressures above 0.3 MPa can reach the standard rated withstand voltage for 24 kV C-GIS.     

Interferometric diagnostics of femtosecond laser microplasma in gases

The laser plasma formed in gaseous media due to their optical breakdown under tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses has been experimentally investigated. Pump-probemicrointerferometry is chosen to perform spatial and temporal diagnostics of the plasma. Time dependences of the laser plasma electron density are obtained. It is shown that in breakdown of different gases (air, nitrogen, argon, and helium) at different pressures (in the range from 1 to 10 atm) the electron concentration continues to increase during ??1 ps when the laser irradiation is over. This effect is related to the impact ionization of the plasma by the hot electrons formed in interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with matter. The results of theoretical simulation of the post-ionization processes are presented.     

Theoretical Studies of the Breakdown Characteristics at Microwave Frequencies

This paper describes several theoretical approaches for studies of the breakdown characteristics for a few atomic and molecular gases at microwave frequencies in small gaps. Numerical studies have been carried out extensively over a wide range of pressures for a microwave frequency of 2.45 GHz using both the kinetic and fluid approaches and compared with the results obtained by an analytical-experimental approach. The obtained results illustrate the physical phenomena that occur during breakdown with emphasis on the determination of the breakdown voltage and its dependence on the gap size and gas pressure at microwave frequency. Good agreement between the results achieved by using different approaches suggests that they can be applied even to gaps of a few hundred micrometers and high pressures.     

Sensitive intracavity absorption at reduced pressures

A broadband continuous-wave dye laser has been enclosed to eliminate interfering atmospheric absorption, and has been run at pressures as low as 50 Torr of various gases. Detection of peak absorption coefficients as small as 10^-8 cm^-1 has been verified, and lines spaced by 0.1 cm^-1 have been resolved.     

Plasma Buildup and Breakdown Delay in a Triggered Vacuum Gap

The phenomena leading to the surface flashover across solid insulators in vacuum and the subsequent spread of the trigger plasma thus formed to bridge the main gap in a triggered vacuum switch are investigated experimentally. The results show that the breakdown proceeds in two stages. In the first stage a plasma is formed by electrons releasing and ionizing absorbed gases. The electrons are field emitted at the insulator-electrode junction and the breakdown delay is primarily affected by the trigger voltage. In the second stage the trigger plasma expands into the main gap with a speed depending on the trigger current and trigger electrode geometry, in accordance with a simple model.     

RESEARCH ON SOME CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPROVEMENTS OF A 70cm STREAMER CHAMBER

In this paper the influence of various proportion of Ne-He gases and the time delay on the quality of streamer tracks has been studied. The diameterand density of streamers under these mixed-gas conditions have been measured.
The time resolution of this streamer chamber was determined to be 2.1μs in 69% Ne+31% He+8×10^－8 SF₆, and as 177μs in pure neon by using the exponentially decreasing relation of streamer desity with delay time. The spatial resolution was determined to be 0.32mm in Ne+3×10^－8 SF₆ by measuring the streamer diameters, and the method of track standard deviation was also used.
Some results show that the diameter and brightness increase with increasing high voltage, but become rather even when high voltage continues increasing.
Photographs were taken with domestically produced special film (32 DIN, 60 lines/mm), being similar to Kodak SO-143.
A special designed central electrode of the streamer chamber with its wires inlaid in lucite plate is successful for preventing gas from breakdown near wires. Besides, delay time has been reduced to 1.3μs, mainly by the Marx generator and its trigger system the parameters of which have been chosen by a series of experiments.     

Role of the near-electrode regions in the formation of the volume discharge heterogeneity in nitrogen in the pin-to-plane configuration

The development of streamers and sparks in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure in the pin-to-plane electrode configuration is studied in experiments and theoretical calculations. It is demonstrated that the near-electrode regions play the decisive role in streamer initiation. At a negative pin voltage, a spark is formed in the absence of fast primary streamers. At a positive pin voltage, streamer build-up is initiated by the current spots on the anode that result from the development of the ionization instabilities in the anode region. The calculations show that the formation of the current spot on the anode leads to a redistribution of the electric field in the vicinity of the anode, so that a single avalanche is transformed into a streamer under the conditions when the known criterion for streamer breakdown (the Meek-Raether criterion) is not satisfied. Original Text ? Astro, Ltd., 2006.     

Review of relaxation oscillations in plasma processing discharges

Relaxation oscillations due to plasma instabilities at frequencies ranging from a few Hz to tens of kHz have been observed in various types of plasma processing discharges. Relaxation oscillations have been observed in electropositive capacitive discharges between a powered anode and a metallic chamber whose periphery is grounded through a slot with dielectric spacers. The oscillations of time-varying optical emission from the main discharge chamber show, for example, a high-frequency (\sim 40~kHz) relaxation oscillation at 13.33Pa, with an absorbed power being nearly the peripheral breakdown power, and a low-frequency ( \sim 3 Hz) oscillation, with an even higher absorbed power. The high-frequency oscillation is found to ignite plasma in the slot, but usually not in the peripheral chamber. The kilohertz oscillations are modelled using an electromagnetic model of the slot impedance, coupled to a circuit analysis of the system including the matching network. The model results are in general agreement with the experimental observations, and indicate a variety of behaviours dependent on the matching conditions. In low-pressure inductive discharges, oscillations appear in the transition between low-density capacitively driven and high-density inductively driven discharges when attaching gases such as SF₆ and Ar/SF₆ mixtures are used. Oscillations of charged particles, plasma potential, and light, at frequencies ranging from a few Hz to tens of kHz, are seen for gas pressures between 0.133 Pa and 13.33 Pa and discharge powers in a range of 75--1200 W. The region of instability increases as the plasma becomes more electronegative, and the frequency of plasma oscillation increases as the power, pressure, and gas flow rate increase. A volume-averaged (global) model of the kilohertz instability has been developed; the results obtained from the model agree well with the experimental observations.     

Discharge characteristics with respect to width of addresselectrode using three-dimensional analysis

A numerical analysis of the microdischarge in a surface-type AC plasma display cell has been made using the time-dependent, three-dimensional (3-D) fluid equations to understand the discharge characteristics. We investigate the breakdown dynamics with the width of address electrode and barrier ribs, because the typical 3-D parameters in an AC plasma display panel (AC PDP) model are the width of address electrode and the barrier ribs. It has been clarified that the width of address electrode has important role of the formation of discharge volume with the wall annihilation by barrier ribs and the accumulation of wall charges on the part of address electrode. The obtained time dependent spatial characteristics of an AC PDP discharge with the width of address electrode and the effect of wall annihilation by barrier ribs will help us to design the optimized AC PDP cells to get stable write and sustain discharges     

The control of lightning using lasers: properties of streamers and leaders in the presence of laser-produced ionization

This paper summarizes the research this team has performed over the past few years investigating laboratory electrical breakdown discharges in the presence of a plasma cylinder created by a single ultrashort laser pulse. This work is part of a feasibility study about the control of lightning using laser systems. Our experimental investigations have included discharges (i) in modest (30 cm) air gaps mediated by streamers, and (ii) in large (several meters) ambient air gaps for which the discharge took place through the formation of a leader, the mechanism relevant to large scale natural discharges such as lightning. In order to understand the observations, various physical models have been used, the main results of which are discussed in this paper. To cite this article: F. Vidal et al., C. R. Physique 3 (2002) 1361–1374.     

Ministarters and mini blue jets in air and nitrogen at a pulse-periodic discharge in a laboratory experiment

Miniature analogs of starters and blue jets that are observed in the upper atmosphere of the Earth and have dimensions of tens of kilometers are formed and studied in air and nitrogen at pressures of tens and hundreds of Torr. Ministarters and mini blue jets have been obtained in laboratory experiments owing to the application of a pulse-periodic discharge with a plasma jet referred to as apokamp. The velocities of propagation of apokamps have been measured at various pressures. It has been found that the average values of these velocities are about the velocities of propagation of starters and blue jets in the atmosphere of the Earth. It has been shown that jets (apokamps) with the maximum length are observed in the pressure range corresponding to the altitudes of appearance and propagation of starters and blue jets.     

The lifetime of positive streamers in a pulsed point-to-plane gap in atmospheric air

A determination has been made of the lifetime of positive streamers produced in atmospheric air in a positive point-to-plane gap to which was applied a 40 nsec, 40 kV voltage pulse. The streamer tips have been detected at a given plane in the gap by means of a photomultiplier and high speed oscilloscope. It was found that the streamer tips continued to propagate in the gap, long (up to 35 nsec) after the voltage pulse was removed, in accordance with the predictions of a recently presented model of streamer propagation. Association of this long lifetime with the properties of an isolated tip was made possible by the detection of a new phenomenon at the anode. At the end of the voltage pulse a second luminosity was observed to leave the anode and to extend along the paths of the primary streamers for about one third of their length. This is shown to be the maximum extent of a more highly conducting trunk, behind and separated from the streamer tip, affecting both the propagation of the tip and the eventual transition of a streamer to a breakdown spark.     

Application of Mn nano-flower sculptured thin films produced on interdigitated pattern as cathode and anode electrodes in field ionization gas sensor

The photolitography method was used for producing interdigitated configurations for cathode and anode electrodes of a field ionization gas sensor in which Mn helical nano-flowers with 3-fold symmetry were deposited using oblique angle deposition together with rotation of the substrate about its surface normal, with each rotation divided into six sections. These sections were alternately rotated at high and low speeds. Three different distances were chosen in the design between anode and cathode electrodes, namely 40, 100 and 200 μm. Physical structure and morphology of electrodes were studied by field emission scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope analyses.The breakdown voltage of the system was studied for nitrogen, oxygen, argon, air and carbon mono-oxide gases. Investigations with these gases at different distances between anode and cathode and different gas pressures confirmed Paschen's Law. Results showed that at low pressures, decreasing the gap between electrodes increases the breakdown voltage. With fewer gas molecules between the electrodes the number of interactions between particles is reduced and higher energies are required for ionization of gas molecules. At high pressures, the breakdown voltage is decreased because of an increased number of molecular interactions. The sensor demonstrated good selectivity between the different gases and selectivity was enhanced with increasing gas pressure. A direct relationship was found at low pressures (e.g., 0.1 mbar) between the breakdown voltage and the gas ionization energy while at high pressures (e.g., 1000 mbar) this relationship was reversed.     

Optimum conditions of the runaway electron beam generation during a uniform gas breakdown

It was shown that a uniform breakdown of a gas gap must be accompanied by the Stoletov effect, i.e., a current maximum in pressure at a given voltage pulse. Analogues of the Stoletov constant were calculated for the pulsed non-self-sustained discharge in various gases. These constants also determine the minimum breakdown delay time. It was shown that the maximum current of the electron beam generated in the gas-filled diode is reached at a pressure corresponding to the maximum current and for an electrode spacing corresponding to the electron drift length during the pulse.