Isotope dependence of the breakdown strength of gases

摘要

It has been found that while the highly nonuniform direct current breakdown voltageVsof H2exceeds that of D2, theVsof CH4is substantially lower than that of CD4. The former (direct) and the latter (inverse) isotope effects are discussed, respectively, in connection with differences in the ionization coefficients and electronhyphen;impacthyphen;induced dissociation processes of the isotopic pairs of molecules.