Criterion for microwave breakdown of gases

An analytical criterion is obtained for microwave breakdown of gases that takes into account the different diffusion coefficients of electrons along and perpendicular to the direction of the electric field. Discharge ignition without electron attachment to the gas molecules and in electronegative gases is examined, along with microwave discharge ignition when a weak dc electric field is applied. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 25–29 (November 1999)     

Scenario of the electric breakdown and UV radiation spectra in single-bubble sonoluminescence

In a preceding paper we put forward the hypothesis that the single-bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL) is caused by strong electric fields arising near the surface of a collapsing gas bubble on account of the flexoelectric effect in water. Here we argue that these fields can indeed provoke a multiple electric breakdown in water, in a micron-size region near the surface of the collapsing gas bubble, and show that the main numerical characteristics of the SBSL can be naturally explained within this mechanism. The SBSL spectra are determined by radiative transitions between high-energy levels of noble-gas atoms excited by hot electrons produced by the strong flexoelectric field in “cold” water. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 7, 428–433 (10 October 1999) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Effect of the duration of the front edge of the voltage pulse on the electric breakdown of ammonium perchlorate

The results of a study of the effect of the front edge duration of a voltage pulse (τ) on the electric breakdown of ammonium perchlorate single crystals are submitted. Experiments have shown that at τ<1.5 µs, the breakdown threshold field increases with reduction in τ and does not depend on τ at τ>1.5 µs. It is shown that the electric breakdown of ammonium perchlorate results from an impact generation of electrons. The impact generation rate of electrons versus electric field and the diameter of the through channel being formed during electric breakdown in ammonium perchlorate are estimated.     

Deceleration and acceleration of fast electrons in a dense gas in an electric field

The propagation of electrons in a gas at energies higher than the excitation energy of the K shell of the gas atoms is simulated numerically. Calculations show that, without a field, the penetration depth of the electrons into a gas heavier than nitrogen is limited primarily by their elastic collisions with atomic nuclei. For electrons moving in an electric field, the effect of elastic collisions is that there is no definite electric field strength above which an electron with a given energy will be continuously accelerated. Even in an electric field much stronger than the critical one, only a fraction of electrons are accelerated. The remaining electrons turn back due to elastic collisions and lose their energy in deceleration by the field. In this case, the propagation velocity of the centroid of the electrons tends to a constant value.     

Kinetic parameters,collision rates,energy exchanges and transport coefficients of non-thermal electrons in premixed flames at sub-breakdown electric field strengths

The effects of an electric field on the collision rates, energy exchanges and transport properties of electrons in premixed flames are investigated via solutions to the Boltzmann kinetic equation. The case of high electric field strength, which results in high-energy, non-thermal electrons, is analysed in detail at sub-breakdown conditions. The rates of inelastic collisions and the energy exchange between electrons and neutrals in the reaction zone of the flame are characterised quantitatively. The analysis includes attachment, ionisation, impact dissociation, and vibrational and electronic excitation processes. Our results suggest that Townsend breakdown occurs for E/N = 140 Td. Vibrational excitation is the dominant process up to breakdown, despite important rates of electronic excitation of CO, CO₂ and N₂ as well as impact dissociation of O₂ being apparent from 50 Td onwards. Ohmic heating in the reaction zone is found to be negligible (less than 2% of peak heat release rate) up to breakdown field strengths for realistic electron densities equal to 10¹⁰ cm^?3. The observed trends are largely independent of equivalence ratio. In the non-thermal regime, electron transport coefficients are insensitive to mixture composition and approximately constant across the flame, but are highly dependent on the electric field strength. In the thermal limit, kinetic parameters and transport coefficients vary substantially across the flame due to the spatially inhomogeneous concentration of water vapour. A practical approach for identifying the plasma regime (thermal versus non-thermal) in studies of electric field effects on flames is proposed.     

Theory of sonoluminescence in single bubbles: Flexoelectric energy contribution

An equation of motion for a cavitating gas bubble immersed in a liquid is introduced which includes a flexoelectric energy term. This energy is deduced from the electric field produced by the bubble wall acceleration (pressure gradient) in the fluid (the flexoelectric effect). We show that under conditions of sonoluminescence, this electric field reaches values typical of the electric breakdown field in water. Our theoretical results are consistent with the duration of light emission, minimum bubble radius, and energy release as measured in sonoluminescence experiments in water. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 6, 442–448 (25 September 1998)     

Nonlinear effects in a two-dimensional electron gas with a periodic lattice of scatterers

The magnetoresistance of two-dimensional (2D) electrons in a periodic lattice of antidots is found to be substantially influenced by an applied electric field. The non-Ohmic behavior of the resistance in the region of commensurability oscillations originates from the electric-field-induced breakdown of the trajectories skipping along the lattice arrays. In the region of magnetic fields where the cyclotron diameter is less than the distance between antidots the breakdown of the orbits skipping around antidots is responsible for the nonlinear behavior of the magnetoresistance. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 3, 237–241 (10 February 1997) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

高功率微波单一气体及混合气体击穿特性

综合考虑高功率微波对电子的加速过程以及电子与气体分子的碰撞过程,建立了单一气体与混合气体击穿过程的蒙特卡罗仿真模型,编写了三维蒙特卡罗仿真程序(3D-MCC)。针对单一气体Ar和N2以及混合气体N2/O2展开研究,仿真了气体雪崩击穿电子云形成过程,对比分析了不同气体电子能量分布函数随压强的变化规律。发现了Ar击穿特性受电子能量分布函数影响较大,而N2击穿特性受电子能量分布函数影响较小。通过分析平均电子能量以及电子密度随时间的变化过程,得到了Ar和N2击穿时间,并通过与流体模型计算得到的击穿时间比对分析验证了3D-MCC模型的正确性。在真空腔体内开展了S波段高功率微波大气击穿实验,测量得到了场强为6.38 kV/cm时不同压强下的大气击穿时间。通过在辐射源与真空腔体之间增加聚焦透镜,大大减小了壁效应的影响,并且采用模型仿真得到的大气击穿时间与实验结果吻合较好。     

A modified Paschen law for the initiation of a dc glow discharge in inert gases

Breakdown of inert gases in a homogeneous dc electric field is studied experimentally and theoretically at various distances L between the electrodes and radii R of the discharge tubes. It is shown that, for arbitrary geometric dimensions of the discharge chamber and cathode materials, the ratio of the breakdown electric field strength to the gas pressure holds constant at the breakdown curve minimum. A modified Paschen law is obtained, according to which the breakdown voltage is a function of both the product of the gas pressure by the distance L and the ratio L/R.     

An AlGaN/GaN HEMT with reduced surface electric field and improved breakdown voltage

A reduced surface electric field in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is investigated by employing a localized Mg-doped layer under the two-dimensional electron gas (2-DEG) channel as an electric field shaping layer. The electric field strength around the gate edge is effectively relieved and the surface electric field is distributed evenly as compared with those of HEMTs with conventional source-connected field plate and double field plate structures with the same device physical dimensions. Compared with the HEMTs with conventional source-connected field plate and double field plate, the HEMT with Mg-doped layer also shows that the breakdown location shifts from the surface of the gate edge to the bulk Mg-doped layer edge. By optimizing both the length of Mg-doped layer, L_m, and the doping concentration, a 5.5 times and 3 times the reduction in the peak electric field near the drain side gate edge is observed as compared with those of the HEMTs with source-connected field plate structure and double field plate structure, respectively. In a device with V_GS=-5 V, L_m=1.5 μm, a peak Mg doping concentration of 8× 10¹⁷ cm^-3 and a drift region length of 10 μm, the breakdown voltage is observed to increase from 560 V in a conventional device without field plate structure to over 900 V without any area overhead penalty.     

Energetic Characteristics of Oxygen Plasma

A low-temperature oxygen plasma is studied using the thermocouple, probe and spectral method in the range of 2–8 Torr pressure, 30–100 mA discharge currents, 0, 5, 10 m/s pumping velocity. The gas temperature, concentrations of electrons and oxygen atoms in the 3 p⁵P state, and the longitudinal electric field are measured. Radial distributions of gas temperature and electron concentration are obtained. Ranges of pressures and currents are found in which considerable increases in electric field, discharge voltage, temperatures of gas and electrons are observed at pumping switched on. An estimate of the rate constant of the steplike ionization through the O₂(a¹Δg) state is given. The concentration of atomic oxygen in the ground state and excitation constant of the triplet O(3p⁵P) by electron impact are obtained from the solution of the balance equations and our experimental data.     

Air breakdown induced by the microwave with two mutually orthogonal and heterophase electric field components

The air breakdown is easily caused by the high-power microwave, which can have two mutually orthogonal and heterophase electric field components. For this case, the electron momentum conservation equation is employed to deduce the electric field power and effective electric field for heating electrons. Then the formula of the electric field power is introduced into the global model to simulate the air breakdown. The breakdown prediction from the global model agrees well with the experimental data. Simulation results show that the electron temperature is sensitive to the phase difference between the two electron field components, while the latter can affect obviously the growth of the electron density at low electron temperature amplitudes. The ionization of nitrogen and oxygen induces the growth of electron density, and the density loss due to the dissociative attachment and dissociative recombination is obvious only at low electron temperatures.     

Effect of electron magnetic trapping in a plasma immersion ion implantation system

In this work we describe a two-dimensional computer simulation of magnetic field enhanced plasma immersion implantation system. Negative bias voltage of 10.0 kV is applied to a cylindrical target located on the axis of a grounded vacuum chamber filled with uniform nitrogen plasma. A pair of external coils creates a static magnetic field with main vector component along the axial direction. Thus, a system of crossed E×B field is generated inside the vessel forcing plasma electrons to rotate in azimuthal direction. In addition, the axial variation of the magnetic field intensity produces magnetic mirror effect that enables axial particle confinement. It is found that high-density plasma regions are formed around the target due to intense background gas ionization by the trapped electrons. Effect of the magnetic field on the sheath dynamics and the implantation current density of the PIII system is investigated. By changing the magnetic field axial profile (varying coils separation) an enhancement of about 30% of the retained dose can be achieved. The results of the simulation show that the magnetic mirror configuration brings additional benefits to the PIII process, permitting more precise control of the implanted dose.     

纳秒脉冲下高能量快电子逃逸过程的计算

基于快电子的逃逸击穿机理将是一种能解释纳秒脉冲高过电压倍数下气体放电现象的理论，对高能量快电子的逃逸运动、碰撞电离引导电子崩的发展等进行了分析，并根据电子能量与阻力关系式，对电子的俘获或逃逸过程进行了计算.结果表明外加场强越高，更多的电子能逃逸，逃逸的能量阈值越低，气压对电子的逃逸过程影响也较大.同时也定性描述了纳秒脉冲下逃逸击穿放电过程. 关键词： 气体放电 快电子 逃逸击穿 纳秒脉冲     

Magnetization of an electron plasma by microwave pulses: Faraday induction

It has been argued theoretically that the recently proposed vacuum fieldB ⁽³⁾ is not accompanied by a real electric fieldE ⁽³⁾ . Experimental evidence for this interence is available in the data reported by Deschampset al. [10], using microwave magnetization of an electron plasma set up in helium gas. Faraday induction due toB ⁽³⁾ does not occur in the inert gas and is not observed experimentally in the absence of free electrons. WheneverB ⁽³⁾ interacts with free electrons, however, Faraday induction occurs through a pulse of induced magnetization (i.e., induced orbital electronic angular momentum).     

Stimulation of high-frequency breakdown of gas in Uragan-3M torsatron by runaway electrons

In experiments on confinement and heating of plasma in the Uragan-3M torsatron, the method of high-frequency breakdown of the working gas is used. In these experiments, in conditions of a relatively stable magnetic field, the rf power supplied to the setup chamber has a frequency close to the ion-cyclotron frequency. Such a method of gas breakdown is not always sufficiently reliable. In our experiments, preliminary ionization of the working gas by the run-away electron beam is used for stabilizing the breakdown. This work contains the results of experiments on enhancement of the runaway electron beam and on the interaction of the runaway electron beam in the Uragan-3M torsatron with the HF electromagnetic pump field. This enables us to formulate a number of recommendations for using spontaneously formed beams of accelerated particles for stimulating the rf breakdown. Our results confirm the possibility of gas breakdown by runaway electrons.     

Electrostatic analysis for designing of efficient discharge cell structures in AC plasma displays

The high luminous efficacy of plasma display demands high luminance at reduced discharge power. The discharge power can be reduced by several steps, one of them being reduction of gas breakdown voltage. In this paper, improved discharge cell structures are introduced that favor reduction of the gas breakdown voltage. The simulated electric field profiles for these structures indicate the low voltage requirement with increased electric field concentration in the discharge gap. The experimental measurements of breakdown voltage and discharge delay time in the test panels also support the simulation results. The important features of these discharge cell structures are discussed.     

Characteristics of the backscattering of moderate-energy electrons by solids having different atomic numbers

The coefficient of backscattering of primary electrons is discussed as a function of their energy and atomic number Z. The amplitude of the wave function obtained in the first Born approximation and the Thomas-Fermi atom model are used to calculate the constant for screening of the electric field of the nucleus by atomic electrons. The theoretically calculated integral backscattering coefficients of primary electrons are compared with the experimental values in the range 12<Z<92 for primary electron energies of 10 and 40 keV. Possible applications of these results are indicated. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 40–45 (June 1999)     

波导内场增强法测量微波气体击穿

 提出并研究了波导内场增强法测量微波气体击穿的实验方案,在密闭波导内加金属针实现电场增强,通过调节微波源辐射功率及两针距离,使微波传输达到气体击穿的条件。介绍了实验原理及诊断方法,进行了频率2.86 GHz、脉宽180 ns的微波在0.1 MPa空气中的击穿实验,分析了实验中得到的典型波形。结果表明实验现象与设计吻合,验证了该方案研究微波气体击穿的可行性。     

高功率微波沿面闪络击穿机制粒子模拟

针对高功率微波介质沿面闪络击穿物理过程,首先建立了理论模型,包括:动力学方程、粒子模拟算法、二次电子发射, 以及电子与气体分子蒙特卡罗碰撞模型、电子碰撞介质表面退吸附气体分子机制;其次,基于理论模型,编制了1D3V PIC-MCC程序,分别针对真空二次电子倍增、高气压体电离击穿和低气压面电离击穿过程,运用该程序仔细研究了电子和离子随时间演化关系、电子运动轨迹、电子及离子密度分布、空间电荷场时空分布、电子平均能量、碰撞电子平均能量、碰撞电子数目随时间演化关系、电子能量分布函数、平均二次电子发射率以及能量转换关系。研究结果表明:真空二次电子倍增引发的介质表面沉积功率只能达到入射微波功率1%左右的水平,不足以击穿;气体碰撞电离主导的高气压体电离击穿,是由低能电子（eV量级）数目指数增长到一定程度导致的,形成位置远离介质表面,形成时间为s量级;低气压下的介质沿面闪络击穿,是在二次电子倍增和气体碰撞电离共同作用下,由于数目持续增长的高能电子（keV量级）碰撞介质沿面导致沉积功率激增而引发的,形成位置贴近介质沿面,形成时间在ns量级。