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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Are Microbubbles Necessary For The Breakdown Of Liquid Water Subjected To A Submicrosecond Pulse?, R. P. Joshi, J. Qian, G. Zhao, J. Kolb, K. H. Schoenbach, E. Schamiloglu, J. Gaudet
Are Microbubbles Necessary For The Breakdown Of Liquid Water Subjected To A Submicrosecond Pulse?, R. P. Joshi, J. Qian, G. Zhao, J. Kolb, K. H. Schoenbach, E. Schamiloglu, J. Gaudet
Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications
Electrical breakdown in homogeneous liquid water for an ∼ 100 ns voltage pulse is analyzed. It is shown that electron-impact ionization is not likely to be important and could only be operative for low-density situations or possibly under optical excitation. Simulation results also indicate that field ionization of liquid water can lead to a liquid breakdown provided the ionization energies were very low in the order of 2.3eV. Under such conditions, an electric-field collapse at the anode and plasma propagation toward the cathode, with minimal physical charge transport, is predicted. However, the low, unphysical ionization energies necessary for matching …