Influence of copper thin film as an electrode on the DC electrical breakdown in the presence of Ar and air

Electrical breakdown for low pressure argon gas and air, using copper thin films as the electrodes, was investigated. A specially designed cathode was built from copper thin film deposited on glass by a magnetron sputtering system creating the breakdown between those electrodes. The left side of Paschen’s curve and ionization coefficient η as well as the effective electron emission coefficient γ was obtained with respect to the variation of reduced electric fields for argon gas and air for different thin films thicknesses. It is concluded that reducing the thin film thickness as an electrode leads to a decrease of breakdown voltage and amplifying secondary electron emission. In addition, the influence of the gas type on dependence of breakdown characteristics on the electrode thickness was investigated