Transient drift dominated unipolar conduction between coaxial cylinders

When sufficiently high voltages are applied to electrical insulators, electrical breakdown occurs at some time after the voltage is applied. This time delay to breakdown coupled to time of flight measurements of charge carrier mobilities obtained from peaks in the current waveform, provides information on insulation and conduction characteristics of the dielectrics. In addition, the bulk electric field and space charge distributions can be measured using the Kerr electro-optic effect for those dielectrics which become birefringent when stressed by high voltages, such as water1 and nitrobenzene.2 A short circuit analysis applied during the post breakdown period.