Investigation of the microchannel structure in the initial phase of the discharge in air at atmospheric pressure in the “pin (anode)-plane” gap
K. I. Almazova, A. N. Belonogov, V. V. Borovkov, V. S. Kurbanismailov, З. Р. Халикова, P. Kh. Omarova, G. B. Ragimkhanov, Д. В. Терешонок, A. A. Tren’kin
Abstract
The results of studies of the microstructure in the initial phase of the discharge in air in the gap between the pin and a plane 1.5 mm long are presented. Measurements show that within 15 ns after breakdown, the channel is a bundle of a large number of microchannels, the current in the channel grows almost linearly up to 1 kA, and the electron concentration reaches 2 × 1019 cm−3. Taking into account the experimental data, the electron temperature dynamics in a separate microchannel was calculated. It was found that the average electron temperature is from 4 to 8 eV, the electric field strength is ∼300 kV/cm, and the electrical conductivity is ∼10 Ω−1 cm−1. The obtained results indicate that it is the microstructure of the discharge that determines the relatively high values of the average temperature of electrons in combination with a sufficiently high degree of ionization.