Energetic breakdowns and voltage hold-off between copper electrodes in vacuum

In high power neutral beam injections, used for thermonuclear research, very high ion currents are extracted from large area ion sources, using an assembly of three or four extraction grids. The extraction system must be very reliable and unaffected by breakdowns that may occur between grids. The aim of the experiments described here, is to infer some empirical laws allowing to dimension the ion sources grid gaps and to assess what energy in the breakdowns leads to irreversible damages