Comparative Study of Breakdown Strength of Vacuum Insulation in Gaps with Electron-Beam Polished Electrodes under Pulsed DC and Microwave Electric Fields

Unlike DC and pulsed DC electric fields, microwave fields cause multipactoring when prebreakdown processes become more complicated. Besides field emission, breakdown strength becomes lowered by gas desorption and its ionization. Rare microwave plasma emits charged particles impacting electrode surfaces and causing secondary emission. We used electron-beam surface melting as a technology for finishing the beam-faced surfaces of microwave cavities. The treatment allows one to smooth and to clean surface perfectly. A part of electrodes were treated in the regime of a surface alloying above stainless steel with smooth transition of chemical composition to pure titanium on the surface. Pulsed DC breakdown strength of stainless steel and titanium samples were measured to be the same while microwave breakdown was delayed for titanium surfaces, which allowed a 25% gain in output microwave power due to lengthening radiation pulses.