Anisotropy of electrical breakdown in crystalline quartz

Partial breakdown of crystalline silicon dioxide in a pulsed nonuniform electric field is considered. Breakdown channels lie in planes of silicon ions that are parallel to the c axis of the crystal (up to six equivalent directions of the channels are observed). The formation of breakdown channels is satisfactorily described in terms of cascade Auger transitions with regard to the crystallochemical symmetry of the quartz lattice.