Dielectric Materials for Advanced

Applications
Progress Report (Oct. 2010 – Feb. 2011)

Xuewei Zhang and Prof. Markus Zahn

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Research Laboratory of Electronics
Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems
High Voltage Research Laboratory

Mar. 2, 2011
1
 I. Introduction
• Problem Setting
Applied Voltage,
1: Integration Law  EdxU
D

Gap Geometry 0

2: Gauss’Law dE dx


3: Drift and diffusion of charges, various

1
electrode processes and impurity effects

Liquid Ionization Electric Field Electrode Injection

Bulk Dissociation 3 Complex injection &

2

(heterocharge distribution) conduction phenomena

Space Charge 2
 I. Introduction
• Possible Space Charge Configurations

(a) uniform field with no net charge; (b) unipolar (+/-) space charge configuration;
(c) bipolar homocharge distribution with field depressed at both electrodes;
(d) bipolar hetereocharge distribution with field enhanced at both electrodes. 3
 I. Introduction
• Kerr Electro-Optic Measurement (Pre-Semi Polariscope)
y x  e1x 
(e , e ) 

1x

1y
I1 ( E )  e1 y  1  sin(2BLE 2 )
 
I0 e
  0x 
2


(e0 x , e0 y )  
z  e0 y 

e0 y e1y
e0 x e1x

P ola rizer Ana lyze r

Ke rr Me dium

Laser Output: angle of polarization w.r.t. y-coordinate   arctan(e0 x / e0 y )   / 4

Polarizer: angle of transmission axis p   / 4
Quarter-Wave Plate: e-wave polarized at q  0 and retarded by  / 2 in phase
Kerr Medium: e-wave polarized at m  0 with phase retardation   2BLE 2 4
Analyzer: angle of transmission axis a   p  / 2   / 4
 I. Introduction
• From Light Intensity to Electric Field (Simple Case 1)
2I1(E)
1 sin[  ( E )]
I0 U
E av 
D

x D 0  2 3  ( E)  2BLE2

-1

 2 I1 ( E ) 
2
2BLE  ( 2 k '1)  arcsin   1 k' 1 5
 I0 
 I. Introduction
• From Light Intensity to Electric Field (Simple Case 2)

2I1(E)
1 sin[  ( E )]
I0
U
E av 
D
1

x D 0  2 3  ( E)  2BLE2

-1

2  2 I1 ( E ) 
2BLE  2k  arcsin   1 k 1
 I0
6

 I. Introduction
• From Light Intensity to Electric Field (Complex Example)
2I1(E)
1 sin[  ( E )]
I0

U
E av 
D Possibility 1 Possibility 2
1

Gap Spacing
D x2 x1 0  2 3  ( E)  2BLE2

-1
Possibility 1 Possibility 2
There are 4 possibilities for E in total

7
 I. Introduction
• From Light Intensity to Electric Field (General Method):
• Suppose there are N sections in the light intensity profile
and M monotonic sections of the sine function, the total
N
number of possibilities is M ;
• Then, enumerate all these possibilities, and find solution
to the following optimization problem:
D
min   U   Edx
0

2I1 ( E )
s.t. sin[ ( E )]  1
I0
& E ( x)  C 1
8
 I. Introduction
• Detect Light Intensity by CCD Camera
Window of the Test Cell
Light Propagating

Top Electrode (HV)

0
620 pixels Imaging Area
8  8 mm2
D=5 mm
Bottom Electrode (Ground)

Propylene Carbonate
B ~ 21012m/V 2  r ~ 65
CCD Exposure Time: x
10 μs 9
 I. Introduction
• Synchronization of waveforms

Delay 1 Delay 2

Manual TTL high level to

Trigger CCD camera Channel 1: 15 V pulse to trigger Marx generator (at t=0);
Channel 2: TTL high level signal to trigger CCD camera;
15V pulse to HV Channel 3: HV pulse measured by the 5068:1 capacitive divider (its
impulse generator duration is ~10 ms and the peak voltage ~18 kV appears at t=0.1 ms)

10
 I. Introduction
• Experimental Procedures:

• Before the application of the high voltage, the CCD camera is set to be in the
internal-triggering kinetic mode. Take 50 subsequent images, in which each
pixel corresponds to an electron count indicating the brightness. Compute the
average of them as background.

• Then switch the CCD camera to external-triggering image mode and press the
manual trigger button of the delay generator. High voltage pulse is generated;
the waveform measured by the divider is recorded by the oscilloscope. After
being triggered the CCD camera takes the signal.

• Cut off the high voltage supply, use the real-time mode of the CCD to monitor
the liquid stabilization, wait about 10 minutes and start the next measurement.

11
 30

2. Results
20

10

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
1
• An example:

I 1(E)/I 0
0.5
• Narrow lines and
small fluctuations 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
may not be seen 1.6
x/D

by naked eyes. 1.5

Cu(#2) electrodes in propylene carbonate;
Image taken at t=0.1 ms; CCD exposure time 10 μs;
U~25 kV; D=5 mm; L=0.127 m.
1.4

• The old 1.3

“counting fringes” 1.2

ED/U

method 1.1
is inaccurate: 1
a) Spatial resolution
0.9
b) Number of fringes
c) Contrast of light intensity 0.8

d) Diffusivity of pixels 0.7

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
e) Time synchronization 12
x/D
 2. Results
• More electrode combinations (heterocharge distribution)

1.6
01 – Ti; 02 – Cu (alloy 110); 04 – Brass (alloy 360); 11 – Al (alloy 6061, anodized);
13 – Al (alloy 7075); 21 – Stainless steel (alloy 304, brushed)

13
 2. Results
• More electrode combinations (homocharge distribution)

1.2
15 – Steel (alloy 1018, nickel-coated); 18 – Steel (alloy 1018);
21 – Stainless steel (alloy 304, brushed); 22 – Stainless steel (alloy 304);
24 – Stainless steel (alloy 316); 25 – Stainless steel (alloy 440C);
14
27 – Stainless steel (alloy 321);
 2. Results
Stainless Steel (#21) Electrodes; Various Peak Voltages
Positive Polarity Negative Polarity

1.15 -0.5

1.1 -0.6
1.15 -0.5
15
 3. Results
Stainless Steel (#21) Electrodes; Various Peak Voltage
Positive Polarity Negative Polarity

0.8 0

0.8
0.6 -0.1
0 16
 2. Results
• Up to now, we have shown the results of:
• 1). For various pairs of electrodes and the same peak HV value (25 kV),
measuring the distributions of electric field and space charge density in the
gap at the same instant (peak HV);
• 2). For the same pair of electrodes (S-S #21) and various peak HV values
(both polarities), measuring the distributions of electric field and space
charge density in the gap at the same instant (peak HV);
• Stainless steel electrodes can realize homocharge distribution in propylene
carbonate. It seems that only when a stainless steel electrode is stressed
by a positive polarity high voltage, the “injection” at the anode supersedes
the heterocharge distribution due to bulk dissociation, which, however, is
not exactly an injection, since propylene carbonate is reactive with
stainless steel generating particle layers on the anode.

• We also did the following work:

• For the same pair of electrodes and the same peak HV value, we video
recorded the dynamics of the charge injection and transport.
17
 2. Results
• Practical difficulties and solutions:
• The shortest exposure time of the CCD camera is 10 μs. Due to its high spatial
resolution and sensitivity, the transfer of an image to memory is relatively slow,
resulting in a frame rate of < 100 fps.
• The high voltage pulse duration is ~ 10 ms, requiring the frame rate >> 100 fps.
• Directly recording the dynamics seems impossible at the current stage. The
solution is to repetitively apply the high-voltage pulses and take images with
different delays at different times.
• In principle we can take images every 10 μs; however, the jitter of the Marx
generator brings about uncertainties in the starting time of the HV pulse,
causing variations in the waveform. At t=0, the 15 V trigger pulse is applied to
the Marx generator, but the time it takes to initiate a HV pulse may vary from 1
to 50 μs. There are fluctuations in the HV pulse starting time during the first 0.1
ms after trigger, which makes the measurement on the rising-edge of the HV
pulse inaccurate and inconclusive.
• In all cases, the peak appears at about t=0.1 ms, and images were taken every
0.5 ms from t=0.1 ms to t=10.1 ms.
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 2. Results
• Stainless Steel (#21) electrodes, peak HV ~25 kV
• Light intensity evolution:

19
 2. Results
• Stainless Steel (#21) electrodes, peak HV ~25 kV
• Electric field distribution:

20
 2. Results
• Stainless Steel (#21) electrodes, peak HV ~25 kV
• Space charge dynamics:

21
 Plan for Continuing Work
• Transformer oil electric field and charge
density measurements for various electrode
combinations and high voltages (March-May)
• Breakdown experiments to determine if there
is a correlation between charge density
magnitude and polarity near the electrodes
and the breakdown voltage (June-August)

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