Speaker
Description
The Large Electrode System (LES) is a pulsed high-voltage DC test stand located at CERN where its main objective is investigating the origin behind breakdowns. Breakdowns are an important limiting factor in high electric field applications and ongoing studies are performed to better understand the origin behind this phenomenon. Our experimental setup requires two electrodes, having a gap between 20um to 100um. A program used to evaluate and compare the high-field behaviour of materials such as Hard Cu, Soft Cu, Nb, TiAl, Ta, CuCrZr and others, has been carried out. It identifies their field holding capabilities, breakdown rates, conditioning behavior and breakdown locations. In addition, field emission tests are conducted to find the surface field enhancement of the different materials. Light spectra are also observed during field emission and can withold important information as to where the surface field enhancement originates from.
