Observation of weakly ionized dusty plasma in exhaust gas in a compact-size SF/sub 6/ gas circuit breaker

Measurement of exhausted gas was carried out in an exhaust chamber of a practical compact-size gas circuit breaker. The result show that the gas is weakly ionized, ablated metallic materials exist as metal clusters of sizes from 10 to 100 /spl mu/m, and their major constituent is iron.