INVESTIGATION OF HIGH FREQUENCY GASEOUS BREAKDOWN UNDER CONDITIONS OF NON-UNIFORM ELECTRIC FIELDS
Abstract
A study of microwave breakdown in strongly non-uniform electric fields has been performed. Breakdown fields in air have been measured in three resonant cavities at X-band frequencies. One cavity was designed to provide uniform field breakdown, while the other two had strong field gradients. Effective diffusion lengths for the non-uniform field cavities were calculated, by making use of the variational theory for nonuniform field breakdown. The experimental results for the uniform field cavity are in good agreement with theory; however, the observed data for the non-uniform field cavities shows only fair agreement with theory. The discrepancy between theory and experiment in the diffusion region is not unexpected, considering the assumptions that were made in the theory. However, the discrepancy in the attachment region of the experiments is unexpected and suggest the possibility that an additional mechanism may play a significant role in non-uniform field breakdown.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0278568
Entities
People
- Harvey Fields
Organizations
- Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories