Insulator damages related to charge detrapping

It is shown that a critical space charge variation is the cause of insulator sample damage ranging from atom size to macroscopic size. This finding has implications for space charge characterization. Correlation of the space charge characteristics to breakdown strength requires the critical conditions for initiating breakdown. These conditions are related to such material intrinsic parameters as the trap energy distribution, the trap spatial distribution, the schubweg, and the modification of the free energy of the charged sample. The crucial point is therefore not how to measure the charge distribution but how to characterize trapping/detrapping critical parameters