Сверхвысокочастотный пробой воздуха, инициированный помещенным на диэлектрической поверхности электромагнитным вибратором

Abstract

New results of experimental investigations of the possibility and conditions of initiation of electric breakdown of air in a quasi-optical microwave beam with a subcritical field level are described. The breakdown is initiated by a linear electromagnetic (EM) vibrator placed in a traveling EM wave on the surface of the dielectric sheet facing toward the wave vector k, on its opposite surface and near it. Simultaneously, theoretical calculations of the induced electric field near its ends were carried out for all variants of the vibrator location considered in the experiments. Numerical estimates and experimental results have shown that the placement of the vibrator on the surface of a dielectric plate can initiate a breakdown of air at significantly lower levels of the EM field in the microwave beam compared to the case of placing the vibrator in “free space”, i.e.at the absence of any dielectric plates