Scaling Laws for Discharges on Floating Supports

Abstract

A technique to study discharges on floating and biased holders is described. Results from positively and negatively charged perforated Second Surface Mirrors (SSMs) are presented. In contrast with grounded samples, discharges, did not scale with sample size but rather with absolute voltage and absolute capacitance (or satellite size). These discharges are sudden charge emissions (blow-off) from either the holder or the dielectric surface, depending upon the differential charging polarity. Transient voltages of the holder resulted and were found consistent with both the magnitude and sign of the emitted charge.