Initiation Mechanism of a Negative Nanosecond Pulsed Discharge in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

This paper deals with the initiation mechanism of a negative nanosecond pulsed discharge in supercritical (SC) carbon dioxide that was examined in detail using Schlieren and photomultiplier techniques. A negative pulsed voltage with a rise time of about 90 ns and half-width of 410 ns was applied to the point electrode. The experimental results show that: 1) The negative primary streamer was of a form quite different than that of a positive one: a bushlike negative streamer and a filamentlike positive streamer; 2) a drastic change in the density dependence of streamer initiation voltage appeared around the subcritical phase in the characteristics for streamer initiation voltage versus medium density; and 3) a shock wave of speed 1-1.5 Mach began growth following a delay of around 50 ns from the streamer initiation. It was predicted from the analysis of the experimental results that the drastic change in the streamer initiation voltage versus medium density characteristics may be due to a transition between the two types of generation mechanisms of the initial electron: electron detachment from negative ions in the gas phase and field electron emission from the point electrode in the SC and liquid phases. The shock wave was presumed to be caused by thermal relaxation of the vibrational energy in carbon dioxide molecules in a decay process of the primary streamer.