*2.4.2 Effect of the electron beam flux*

In addition, if the flux of the electron beam is increased (from 0.175 to 1.75 μA/cm<sup>2</sup> ), the dc surface flashover decreases exponentially with the electron energy. This is explained by the RIC phenomena. During the electron irradiation, electron-holes pairs created can exceed the number of intrinsic carriers and make the RIC to increase. This increase is generally following the energy increase. But when the dose rate increases, the RIC effect decreases and then the effect of accumulated charges increases and contributes to the reduction of the flashover voltage.
