This article is cited in 6 papers

Gas Discharges, Plasmas

On the plasma mechanism of developing the early stages of breakdown in gases

O. A. Omarov^a, A. A. Rukhadze<sup>b

a</sup> Daghestan State University, Makhachkala
^b Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Abstract: The time evolution of the initial stages of breakdown in high-pressure gases is theoretically investigated. The following three stages are considered: initial: the origination and development of an ionization avalanche, the change of this avalanche to a plasma avalanche, and the change of the plasma avalanche to a plasma streamer. The streamer ionizes the gas via its radiation, causes new avalanches propagating in an enhanced discharge field, and bridges the discharge gap. Simple formulas are derived for the times of transition between various breakdown stages and for the ionization front velocity at separate stages.

 English version: Technical Physics, 2011, 56:7, 944–949

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