<title>Pulsed rf breakdown studies</title>

A series of experiments have been conducted to investigate the critical mechanisms involved in pulsed rf breakdown. This research has examined fundamental issues such as microparticle contamination, grain boundaries, residual gas, pulse duration, field emission, and the spatial distribution of plasma during a breakdown event. The motivation of this research is to gain a clearer understanding of the processes involved in breakdown and to determine methods to increase the breakdown threshold thereby increasing the available power in high power microwave sources and accelerator components.