Characteristics of the pseudospark discharge influenced by parameters of nanosecond pulsed voltages

This paper explores the influence of the pulse front edge and the pulse repetitive rate on the breakdown characteristics of the pseudospark discharge driven by pulsed voltages. The breakdown voltage decreases with the increase of the pulse front voltage. The attenuation coefficients of the breakdown voltage with the increase of the pressure are 0.7, 1.17 and 1.42 in the condition of the pulse front edges of 17, 53 and 140 ns. In addition, the breakdown characteristics of the multi-gap pseudospark under repetitive nanosecond pulsed voltages has also been studied. As the increasing of the gap number, the breakdown voltage increases. The influence of the gas pressure, aperture diameter and pulse repetitive rate on the breakdown voltages shows a similar trend in different gap numbers. The breakdown voltage decreases with the increase of the pressure, gap distance and aperture diameter in the formation of power function.