Characterization of Electrostatic Discharges induced Plasmas in dielectrics irradiated by multi-MeV electron beam

Tristan Gouriou (1, 2) , Maxime Ribière (1) , Jérémie-Marie Plewa (2, 1) , R. Maisonny (1) , Olivier Cessennat (3, 4) , Olivier Eichwald (5) , Mohammed Yousfi (5)

1 DAM/GRAMAT - GRAMAT
2 LAPLACE - LAboratoire PLasma et Conversion d'Energie
3 CESTA - Centre d'études des systèmes et des technologies avancées
4 DAM - Direction des Applications Militaires
5 LAPLACE-PRHE - Plasmas Réactifs Hors Equilibre

This work is devoted to experimental analyses of plasmas induced by electrostatic discharges in dielectric materials. Electrostatic discharges are produced in polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) and polyethylene samples irradiated by a 6-MeV electron beam generated by a linear accelerator facility. The time and space evolution of the conductivity of the plasma is determined by microwave transmission measurements across a cavity followed by comparison with 3D Maxwell calculations. Furthermore, plasma parameters such as average electron energies and densities of electrons and neutral background species are determined from a 0D collisional radiative model. This analysis infers a plasma expansion velocity of about 150 km/s and a maximum electric conductivity of about 40 S/m. The electron density is estimated to be about 1012 cm−3, and electron average energies are up to 60 eV, while neutral species densities do not exceed 1018 cm−3.

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]; Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]; Electromagnétisme

Tristan Gouriou, Maxime Ribière, Jérémie-Marie Plewa, R. Maisonny, Olivier Cessennat, et al.. Characterization of Electrostatic Discharges induced Plasmas in dielectrics irradiated by multi-MeV electron beam. Physics of Plasmas, 2020, 27 (1), pp.013502. ⟨10.1063/1.5127814⟩. ⟨hal-03371631⟩