A study of DC electrical breakdown in liquid helium through analysis of the empirical breakdown field distributions

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Main Authors: Phan, N. S., Wei, W., Beaumont, B., Bouman, N., Clayton, S. M., Currie, S. A., Ito, T. M., Ramsey, J. C., Seidel, G. M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2020
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author Phan, N. S.
Wei, W.
Beaumont, B.
Bouman, N.
Clayton, S. M.
Currie, S. A.
Ito, T. M.
Ramsey, J. C.
Seidel, G. M.
author_facet Phan, N. S.
Wei, W.
Beaumont, B.
Bouman, N.
Clayton, S. M.
Currie, S. A.
Ito, T. M.
Ramsey, J. C.
Seidel, G. M.
contents We report results from a study on electrical breakdown in liquid helium using near-uniform-field stainless steel electrodes with a stressed area of $\sim$0.725 cm$^2$. The distribution of the breakdown field is obtained for temperatures between 1.7 K and 4.0 K, pressures between the saturated vapor pressure and 626 Torr, and with electrodes of different surface polishes. A data-based approach for determining the electrode-surface-area scaling of the breakdown field is presented. The dependence of the breakdown probability on the field strength as extracted from the breakdown field distribution data is used to show that breakdown is a surface phenomenon closely correlated with Fowler-Nordheim field emission from asperities on the cathode. We show that the results from this analysis provides an explanation for the supposed electrode gap-size effect and also allows for a determination of the breakdown-field distribution for arbitrary shaped electrodes. Most importantly, the analysis method presented in this work can be extended to other noble liquids to explore the dependencies for electrical breakdown in those media.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2011_08844
institution arXiv
publishDate 2020
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A study of DC electrical breakdown in liquid helium through analysis of the empirical breakdown field distributions
Phan, N. S.
Wei, W.
Beaumont, B.
Bouman, N.
Clayton, S. M.
Currie, S. A.
Ito, T. M.
Ramsey, J. C.
Seidel, G. M.
Instrumentation and Detectors
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Nuclear Experiment
Applied Physics
Plasma Physics
We report results from a study on electrical breakdown in liquid helium using near-uniform-field stainless steel electrodes with a stressed area of $\sim$0.725 cm$^2$. The distribution of the breakdown field is obtained for temperatures between 1.7 K and 4.0 K, pressures between the saturated vapor pressure and 626 Torr, and with electrodes of different surface polishes. A data-based approach for determining the electrode-surface-area scaling of the breakdown field is presented. The dependence of the breakdown probability on the field strength as extracted from the breakdown field distribution data is used to show that breakdown is a surface phenomenon closely correlated with Fowler-Nordheim field emission from asperities on the cathode. We show that the results from this analysis provides an explanation for the supposed electrode gap-size effect and also allows for a determination of the breakdown-field distribution for arbitrary shaped electrodes. Most importantly, the analysis method presented in this work can be extended to other noble liquids to explore the dependencies for electrical breakdown in those media.
title A study of DC electrical breakdown in liquid helium through analysis of the empirical breakdown field distributions
topic Instrumentation and Detectors
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Nuclear Experiment
Applied Physics
Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.08844