Electrical breakdown voltage in micro- and submicrometer contact gaps (100nm - 10µm) in air and nitrogen

In this paper, we present the results of electrical breakdown experiments performed in a contact gap ranging from 100nm to 10µm under air and nitrogen environment. The electrodes arrangement corresponds to a point-plane system and consists in a probe tip with a radius of curvature of 20µm and a perfectly flat electrode. A high precision piezoelectric actuator provides to the system a static resolution of ±30nm allowing to investigate submicrometer contact gaps. Numerous experiments have been performed at those distances (