Study of electrical breakdown induced by pulsed CO2 laser radiation

Abstract
Electrical breakdown streamers have been triggered in atmospheric air by laser‐induced ionization. Streamers were successfully triggered even when the voltage applied to the electrodes was too low for breakdown to occur by the influence of the electrical field alone. The lifetime of the observed triggering effect has been found to be no less than 1 ms. Laser‐induced streamers were photographically studied and conveniently classified by their observed shapes. In addition, the statistics of the observed phenomena have been compiled according to the classified shape. The statistics indicate that the shape of streamer is likely to be determined by the degree of laser‐induced ionization. It has also been found that the speed of streamer formation is strongly related to the degree of ionization.

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