Vacuum electric discharge initiated by accelerated nanoparticles

A static breakdown induced by the impact of particles detached from a point anode in a strong electric field, corresponding to the athermal field evaporation threshold, was studied by field ion microscopy. Under these conditions, the particle size threshold for the vacuum discharge initiation decreases by one order of magnitude as compared to the case of flat electrodes and falls within a nanometer range of the average radius of bombarding charged particles. The threshold energies of particles initiating a static electric discharge also exhibit a significant decrease.