Evidence for Fowler-Nordheim behavior in RF breakdown

Microscopic images of the surfaces of metallic electrodes used in high-pressure gas-filled 805 MHz RF cavity experiments are used to investigate the mechanism of RF breakdown. The images show evidence for melting and boiling in small regions of ~10 micron diameter on tungsten, molybdenum, and beryllium electrode surfaces. In these experiments, the dense hydrogen gas in the cavity prevents electrons or ions from being accelerated to high enough energy to participate in the breakdown process so that the only important variables are the fields and the metallic surfaces. The distributions of breakdown remnants on the electrode surfaces are compared to the maximum surface gradient E predicted by an ANSYS model of the cavity. The local surface density of spark remnants, proportional to the probability of breakdown, shows a power law dependence on the maximum gradient, with E¹⁰ for tungsten, E^11.5 for molybdenum, and E⁷ for beryllium. This strong E dependence is reminiscent of Fowler-Nordheim behaviour of electron emission from a cold cathode, which is explained by the quantum-mechanical penetration of a barrier that is characterized by the work function of the metal.