The effect of nitrogen impurity on the DC breakdown voltage in argon at micrometer gaps

The dc breakdown voltage has been investigated experimentally in a discharge system consisting of two parallel planar Cu electrodes at separation of 100 $\mu $m, focusing on addition of a small amount of nitrogen to argon gas. The recorded breakdown voltage curves show the well-known V-shaped characteristics. It was found that the breakdown potential increases with increasing nitrogen concentrations especially at the right hand side of the breakdown voltage curves. The experimental data are compared with the PIC/MCC simulation results and a satisfactorily agreement has been achieved.