Vacuum surface flashover: experiments and simulations

It is conjectured that vacuum dielectric surface flashover can be avoided by preventing its initiation. Assuming that the flashover process is initiated by the impact of charged particles on the insulator surface, by deflecting these away from the surface, the development of a flashover avalanche can be repressed. As evidence of this, we present the results of experiments where high-voltage fast-rising microsecond timescale voltage pulses are applied on vacuum insulator samples where we methodically manipulate the magnitude and the orientation of the electric fields at the cathode and anode triple junctions and along the insulator surface.