Short pulse dielectric strength of vacuum gaps with different electrode materials

The study attempts to clarify whether the short pulse electric strength (SPES) of a millimeter plane-parallel vacuum gap depends on the properties of electrode materials such as microhardness, work function, and crystallographic structure. Of all properties considered, the study confirms only the influence of the crystallographic structure on SPES, as was found earlier for dc voltage and gaps of several tense of micrometers. Despite the well-known fact of breakdown ignition at a cathode, the mechanism triggering this ignition is not necessarily related to only one of the electrodes.