An apparatus for studying electrical breakdown in liquid helium at 0.4 K and testing electrode materials for the SNS nEDM experiment

Abstract

We have constructed an apparatus to study DC electrical breakdown in liquid helium at temperatures as low as 0.4 K and at pressures between the saturated vapor pressure and $\sim$600 torr. The apparatus can house a set of electrodes that are 12 cm in diameter with a gap of $1-2$ cm between them, and a potential up to $\pm 50$ kV can be applied to each electrode. Initial results demonstrated that it is possible to apply fields exceeding 100 kV/cm in a 1 cm gap between two electropolished stainless steel electrodes 12 cm in diameter for a wide range of pressures at 0.4 K. We also measured the current between two electrodes. Our initial results, $I<1$ pA at 45 kV, correspond to a lower bound on the effective volume resistivity of LHe of ${\rho }_V>5\times 10^{18}$ $\Omega \cdot$cm. This lower bound is 5 times larger than the bound previously measured. We report the design, construction, and operational experience of the apparatus, as well as initial results.

arXiv comment15 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Review of Scientific Instruments

References in corpus (6)

• An Improved Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• A Revised Experimental Upper Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• Plans for a Neutron EDM Experiment at SNS
• New Concept for a Neutron Electric Dipole Moment Search using a Pulsed Beam
• Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL
• Effect of an electric field on superfluid helium scintillation produced by alpha-particle sources

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