Electrical breakdown in nitrogen at low pressure - physical processes and statistics

The results of investigation of the electrical breakdown in nitrogen, obtained in combined approach based on measuring of the current-voltage characteristic and statistical analysis of the breakdown time delay are presented in this report. Measurement of the current-voltage characteristics with additional monitoring of spatial and temporal distribution of the emission from discharge provides information concerned on development of different regime of low-pressure gas discharge and on processes of the electrical breakdown and discharge maintenance. Also, two new distributions of the statistical time delay of electrical breakdown in nitrogen, the Gaussian and Gauss-exponential ones, are presented. Distributions are theoretically founded on binomial distribution for the occurrence of initiating electrons and described by using analytical and numerical models. Moreover, the correlation coefficient between the statistical and formative time delay of electrical breakdown in nitrogen is determined. Starting from bivariate normal (Gaussian) distribution of two random variables, the analytical distribution of the electrical breakdown time delay is theoretically founded on correlation of the dependent statistical and formative time delay.