A contribution to the theory of streamer breakdown

Abstract

The development of a systematic theory of streamer breakdown of a gas requires the consideration of the transport of the region of ionization toward the ionized gas in an electric field depending on the form of the streamer, which in turn is determined by the transport mechanisms [1–3]. In this form the problem is very complicated,and the theory takes the path of investigation of different qualitative models of a streamer [4]. It is assumed in [4] that the rates of anode-directed and cathode-directed streamers are determined by the drift velocity of the electrons. The mechanism of propagation of anode-directed streamers is taken to be the development of avalanche from the leading front of the electrons traveling to the anode. On the side of the cathode, electrons before the front of the cathodedirected streamer are produced due to the transport of radiation from the ionized region [1]. It is shown in [5] that direct photo-ionization is ineffective because of the small range of the quantas, and a mechanism of development of cathode-directed streamer related to the associative ionization of excited atoms is proposed. These atoms are formed by long-span resonance photons from the wings of the spectral line. An interesting prediction of the theory [4] was a linear dependence of the velocity of the streamers on their length. This dependence was confirmed in experiments on the study of streamer breakdown initiated at the center of the discharge gap in spark chambers [6, 7]. At the same time, for streamers developing from avalanche initiated at one of the electrodes the velocity of propagation of the “breakdown wave” remains constant with a good accuracy in gaps having lengths of the order of 1 m. In the present work a qualitative theory is developed which permits one to calculate the velocity of the an ode-directed streamer in the case where it is independent of the length. Since for pressures of the order of atmospheric pressure the diffusion coefficient of excited atoms [8] is comparable with the electron diffusion coefficient, the effect of radiation transport is disregarded. The stability of the front of the streamer to infinitely small perturbations is investigated. It is shown that, when the finite thickness of the front is taken into consideration, the streamer is stable. It is unstable in the approximation of infinitely thin leading fronts.