Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 89, 30401 (2020)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2020190057

Regular Article

A study of the effect of temperature on the dielectric breakdown and lifetime of polyethylene materials under applied DC voltages at the nanoscale

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of sciences, King Khaled university, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
² Université de Sfax, Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Département de Physique, Laboratoire des matériaux composites céramiques et polymères (LaMaCoP) Faculté des sciences de Sfax BP 805, Sfax 3000, Tunisie
³ Université de Sfax, Laboratoire de Physique Appliquée, Groupe de Physique des matériaux luminescents, Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Département de Physique, BP 1171, Université de Sfax, 3018 Sfax, Tunisie

^* e-mail: imed_boukhris@yahoo.fr

Received: 2 March 2019
Received in final form: 26 August 2019
Accepted: 24 March 2020
Published online: 23 April 2020

Abstract

The reported simulation results could be considered as one of the firsts modeling of the effect of temperature on the electrical breakdown phenomenon in polyethylene nanoscale. The breakdown begins with an abrupt increase of the external current density without a subsequent saturation. Our results show that the increase of temperature at a constant applied DC voltage leads to a breakdown and to a decrease of the insulator's lifetime. These outcomes are strongly linked to the injection of free charges into the sample and to the temporal evolution of the conduction current.