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arXiv · 2511.10528

In-vacuum surface flashover of SiN, AlN, and etched SiO2 thin films at micrometre scales

Vijay Kumar·Martin Siegele-Brown·Matthew Aylett·Sebastian Weidt·Winfried Karl Hensinger
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Abstract

We investigate the surface flashover voltage threshold for SiO$_2$, SiN, and AlN thin films over micrometre scale lengths. Furthermore, we test the effects of different etching chemistries on SiO$_2$ layers. We find that there is little significant difference between untreated SiO$_2$ samples and those that have been etched with hydrogen fluoride or Transene AlPad Etch 639. SiN and AlN samples performed significantly better than all SiO$_2$ samples giving a 45% increase in surface flashover voltage at a distance of 5 $\mu$m with the difference increasing with electrode spacing.

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Vijay Kumar, Martin Siegele-Brown, Matthew Aylett, Sebastian Weidt, Winfried Karl Hensinger. 2025-11-13. In-vacuum surface flashover of SiN, AlN, and etched SiO2 thin films at micrometre scales. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.10528

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