High Pressure Microdischarges in Argon Up to 50BAR

The DC breakdown in compressed gases in has been studied experimentally as well as theoretically by several of investigators [1]–[2]. It was found, that Paschen's law is no longer satisfied in compressed gases when electric field is of the order 10-20MV/m [3]. This failure of Paschen's law is associated with the onset of prebreakdown current attributed to the field emission of electrons from the cathode. However, many phenomena occurring in microdischarges are still not clearly understood especially in case of RF discharges. In this paper, we present experimental study of the high-pressure gas breakdown phenomena in compressed Argon operated in the frequency range from DC up to RF for micrometer electrode gaps.