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Electrical breakdown in helium cells at low temperature.

B Sethumadhavan¹, W Yao, Y H Huang

¹Physics Department, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.

Physical Review Letters

|August 16, 2006

Summary

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Electrical breakdown in helium cells below 0.5 K is caused by Penning ionization. This ionization involves metastable triplet helium excimers interacting with the liquid surface.

Area of Science:

Low-temperature physics
Surface science
Atomic and molecular physics

Background:

Electrical breakdown in cryogenic fluids is a critical phenomenon.
Helium excimers, particularly metastable states, play a role in gas discharge physics.
Surface interactions in liquid helium are not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To elucidate the mechanism behind electrical breakdown in partially filled helium cells at sub-Kelvin temperatures.
To identify the specific species and processes responsible for initiating the breakdown.

Main Methods:

Experimental setup involving partially filled helium cells.
Cryogenic cooling to below 0.5 K.
Electrical measurements to detect breakdown events.

Related Experiment Videos

Spectroscopic or other diagnostic methods to identify helium species (implied).

Main Results:

Electrical breakdown was observed in partially filled helium cells below 0.5 K.
The breakdown is attributed to Penning ionization.
Metastable triplet helium excimers bound to the liquid surface are identified as the key species.

Conclusions:

Penning ionization of surface-bound metastable triplet helium excimers is the primary cause of electrical breakdown in this system.
This finding provides a detailed understanding of electrical discharge in extreme cryogenic conditions.
The study highlights the importance of surface effects in the electrical properties of liquid helium.