Theoretical Studies of the Electrical Discharge Characteristics of Sulfur Hexafluoride

This paper contains results of the theoretical studies of the electrical breakdown properties in sulfur hexafluoride. Since the strong interaction of high-energy electrons with the polyatomic sulfur hexafluoride molecule causes their rapid deceleration to the lower energy of electron capture and dissociative attachment, the breakdown is only possible at relatively high field strengths. From the breakdown voltage curves, the effective yields that characterize secondary electron productions have been estimated. Values of the effective yields are found to be more consistent if they are derived from the experimentally determined values of the ionization coefficient and the breakdown voltages. In addition, simulations were performed using an one-dimensional Particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision code. The obtained simulation results agree well with the available experimental data with an error margin of less than 10% over a wide range of pressures and the gap sizes. The differences between measurements and calculations can be attributed to the differences between simulation and experimental conditions. Simulation results are also compared with the theoretical predictions obtained by using expression that describes linear dependence of the breakdown voltage in sulfur hexafluoride on the pressure and the gap size product.