Abstract
An examination has been made of the prebreakdown conduction between stainless steel, copper, aluminium and tungsten electrodes at small gaps (less than 1 cm) and in poor (106 torr, unbaked) and clean (3 x 109 torr, baked) vacuum systems. Emphasis has been placed on means of distinguishing between the various types of conduction found to occur. These were identified as (1) field emission and an associated current pulse structure, (2) field emission and activationfignition effects, (3) microdischarges. This identification was possible directly as a result of using a fast response current measuring system. Equally, the determination of true field emission characteristics, especially in the poor vacuum system, in the presence of the pulse structure and activationlignition effects was achieved only by means of an ageing process and a fast I-V plotter. The role of surface contamination in determining apparent emission law characteristics has been recognized and a simple, qualitative model proposed which can account for many of the observed effects.
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