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Nanosecond air breakdown parameters for electron and microwave beam propagation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

A. W. Ali
A. W. Ali
Affiliation:
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375-5000
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Abstract

Air breakdown by avalanche ionization plays an important role in the electron beam and microwave propagations. For high electric fields and short pulse applications one needs avalanche ionization parameters for modeling and scaling of experimental devices. However, the breakdown parameters, i.e., the ionization frequency vs E/p (volt. cm−1. Torr−1) in air is uncertain for very high values of E/P. We review the experimental data for the electron drift velocity, the Townsend ionization coefficient in N2 and O2 and develop the ionization frequency and the collision frequency for momentum transfer in air. We construct the E/p vs Pτ diagram and show that our results are in better agreement with the most recent short pulse air breakdown experiments, compared to those predicted by the expression of Felsenthal & Proud (1965). This is because they extrapolate an expression for the drift velocity, linear in E/p, to high values of E/p. Experimentally the drift velocity varies as (E/p)½ in the region of E/p > 100.

Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 105 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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