The influence of electric field uniformity on the discharge characters of SF6 mixture

SF6 and C2H6 are the working gas mixture of non-chain HF laser. In our work, we use a simple pumping circuit to study the influence of the electric field uniformity on the discharge characters. Three groups of electrodes with different designs have been manufactured, and different discharge characters have been got. We have analyzed the results qualitatively, and find that without preionization, uniform electric field is not the best choice to form a large volume discharge in strong negative gas such as SF6-based mixture; approximate uniform electric field may be its substitution. In such electric field the gap breakdown voltage decreases and discharge can perform much easily. The discharge channels away from the cathode surface can also diffuse together to form a large volume discharge to deposit the electric energy into the laser working gas.