Impulse breakdown conditioning process under non-uniform electric field in vacuum

This paper describes an experimental investigation of impulse conditioning effect in vacuum by analyzing the history of sequential breakdown (BD) and the relationship between the migration of BD spots and the variation of electric field strength for nonuniform electric field distribution. From the experimental results, the authors found "the conditioning degree" along the electrodes surface distributes as a function of inverse of electric field distribution for nonuniform electric field configuration.