Guiding Electrical Discharge with Fixed Dielectric Microsphere Description

This video shows guiding of electric discharge along trajectory passing through a laser heated dielectric sphere fixed on a post.

The distance between the electrodes is 10 mm, applied voltage is 32 kV (i.e., close to breakdown at normal conditions), and the power of the laser beam illuminating the sphere is 500 mW.

Initially the laser is off and discharge takes place along random trajectories.

However, the discharge passes through the sphere when the particle is heated upon illumination (i.e., with laser on).

Credit: Shvedov et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19183-0.