1. Investigating the effective range of vacuum ultraviolet-mediated breakdown in high-power microwave metamaterials.
- Author
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Chien-Hao Liu, Neher, Joel D., Booske, John H., and Behdad, Nader
- Subjects
METAMATERIALS ,CRYSTAL structure ,FAR ultraviolet radiation ,ELECTROMAGNETIC fields ,MICROWAVES ,ELECTRIC breakdown - Abstract
Metamaterials and periodic structures operating under high-power excitations are susceptible to breakdown. It was recently demonstrated that a localized breakdown created in a given region of a periodic structure can facilitate breakdown in other regions of the structure where the intensity of the incident electromagnetic fields may not be high enough to cause breakdown under normal circumstances. It was also demonstrated that this phenomenon is due to the generation of vacuum ultraviolet radiation at the location of the initial discharge, which propagates to the neighboring regions (e.g., other unit cells in a periodic structure) and facilitates the generation of a discharge at a lower incident power level. In this paper, we present the results of an experimental study conducted to determine the effective range of this physical phenomenon for periodic structures that operate in air and in pure nitrogen gas at atmospheric pressure levels. It is demonstrated that when breakdown is induced in a periodic structure using a high-power pulse with a frequency of 9.382 GHz, duration of 0.8 is, and peak power level of 25 kW, this phenomenon is highly likely to happen in radii of approximately 16-17 mm from the location of the initial discharge under these test conditions. The results of this study are significant in designing metamaterials and periodic structures for high-power microwave applications as they suggest that a localized discharge created in such a periodic structure with a periodicity less than 16-17 mm can spread over a large surface and result in a distributed discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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