Influence of Surface Carburization of Machinable Ceramics on Its Pulsed Flashover Characteristics in Vacuum

For pulsed power devices, surface flashover phenomena across solid insulators greatly restrict their overall performance. In recent decades, much attention has been paid on enhancing the surface electric withstanding strength of insulators, and it is found that surface treatment of material is useful to improve the surface flashover voltage. The carburization treatment is employed to modify the surface components of newly-developed machinable ceramics (MC) materials. A series of MC samples with different glucose solution concentration (0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%) are prepared by chemical reactions for surface carburization modification, and their surface flashover characteristics are investigated under pulsed voltage in vacuum. It is found that the surface carburization treatment greatly modifies the surface resistivity of MCs and hence the flashover behaviors. Based on the reduction of surface resistivity and the secondary electron emission avalanche (SEEA) theory, the adjustment of flashover withstanding ability can be reasonably explained.