The insulation of high voltages in an accelerator environment: Recent advances

The first part of this paper reviews the fundamental surface studies that established the vital role played by particulate contamination in promoting a ''non-metallic'' field-induced electron emission process that limits the performance of high voltage gaps insulated by either vacuum or high pressure gas; it also considers the technological procedures that can be adopted to limit the problem. This is followed by a discussion of some recent studies that have a special relevance to accelerator technology; in particular, a new perspective is given to the gas conditioning process. (orig.)