The electrical strength of oxide films on metals

Pulse breakdown of thin films is shown to be much the same as pulse breakdown in thin layers of gases and alkali halides, which means that collisional ionization is the basic process; but the relation of delay to thickness does not agree with current concepts on the breakdown mechanism in solids. It is supposed that secondary processes complicate the breakdown by collisional ionization.I am indebted to L. L. Odynets for direction in this work and to students V. Gavrilov and G. Savina for assistance in the experiments.