Nanosecond-Pulsed Discharge in Liquid Nitrogen

The application of strong electric fields in water and organic liquids has been studied for many years, because of its importance in electrical transmission processes and its practical applications in biology, chemistry, and electrochemistry. More recently, liquid-phase electrical discharges have been investigated, and are being developed. Recent advances in pulsed power technology permitted application of much faster voltage rise times (including the subnanosecond range) and revealed that plasma-like phenomena can, in fact, occur in fluid phase quasi-homogeneously without any bubbles and voids. Very sharp rise times leads to overvoltage and development of a non-thermal discharge (direct ionization of liquid phase) before fluid moves forming bubbles or gas voids. Here we present experimental results on generation and characterization of the nanosecond-pulsed discharge directly in liquid nitrogen using 10 ns 120 kV FID pulsed power supply.