We report results from a study on electrical breakdown in liquid helium using near-uniform-field stainless steel electrodes with a stressed area of $\sim 0.7{\mathrm{cm}}^2$. The distribution of the breakdown field is obtained for temperatures between 1.7 K and 4.0 K, pressures between the saturated vapor pressure and 626 Torr, and with electrodes of different surface polishes. A data-based approach for determining the electrode-surface-area scaling of the breakdown field is presented. The dependence of the breakdown probability on the field strength as extracted from the breakdown field distribution data is used to show that breakdown is a surface phenomenon closely correlated with Fowler–Nordheim field emission from asperities on the cathode. We show that the results from this analysis provide an explanation for the supposed electrode gap-size effect and also allow for a determination of the breakdown-field distribution for arbitrary shaped electrodes. Most importantly, the analysis method presented in this work can be extended to other noble liquids to explore the dependencies for electrical breakdown in those media.

中文翻译：

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通过分析经验击穿场分布研究液氦中的直流电击穿

我们报告了使用应力区域为-1的近均匀场不锈钢电极对液氦中的电击穿进行的研究结果。 $〜0.7{\mathrm{厘米}}^{\mathrm{2个}}$。当温度在1.7 K和4.0 K之间，压力在饱和蒸气压和626 Torr之间以及电极表面抛光不同的情况下，可以得到击穿场的分布。提出了一种基于数据的方法来确定击穿场的电极表面积的比例。从击穿场分布数据中提取出击穿概率对场强的依赖性，这表明击穿是一种表面现象，与阴极上的凹凸不平的Fowler-Nordheim场发射密切相关。我们表明，该分析的结果为假定的电极间隙尺寸效应提供了解释，并且还可以确定任意形状的电极的击穿场分布。最重要的是，