Abstract
Deviations to Paschen's law for SF6 at high pressures are commonly explained by field enhancement due to protrusions supposed to exist at the surface of the electrodes. New experiments for positive polarity allow the authors to draw a different conclusion, i.e. to ascribe these deviations to the impurities of the gas, especially to the combined effect of O2 and H2O. For negative polarity, impurities play a minor role and the threshold is very sensitive to the surface state of the stressed electrode.

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