Electron drift velocity in SF₆ in strong electric fields determined from rf breakdown curves

This paper presents measurements of the electron drift velocity V _dr in SF₆ gas for high reduced electric fields (E/N = 330-5655 Td (1 Td = 10^-17V cm²)). The drift velocities were obtained using the method of Lisovskiy and Yegorenkov (1998 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 31 3349) based on the determination of the pressure and voltage of the turning points of rf capacitive discharge breakdown curves for a range of electrode spacings. The V_dr values thus obtained were in good agreement with those calculated from the cross-sections of Phelps and Van Brunt (1988 J. Appl. Phys. 64 4269) using the BOLSIG code. The validity of the Lisovskiy-Yegorenkov method is discussed and we show that it is applicable over the entire E/N range where rf discharge ignition at breakdown occurs for rf frequencies of 13.56 MHz or above.