Dr. Miller's most important scientific contribution to the field of discharges and electrical insulation in vacuum was the first accurate measurement of the degree of ionization and energy of ions emitted from the cathode spot of the vacuum arc. Using a combination of a mass spectrograph and an electrostatic energy analyzer, and state of the art techniques to extract useful data from a low level signal generated in the background of the electrically noisy arc, Miller firmly established the high velocity of the plasma stream measured crudely with a pendulum balance decades earlier. Miller's measurements became the benchmark against which all subsequent ion energy measurements were compared, and his papers on the topic are probably the most cited references on vacuum arcs. His work has stimulated extensive further investigation into the nature of the cathode spot whose objective was to explain the origin of these high energy ions.
More recently Miller has contributed to the area of surface flashover,
and has investigated a number of surface treatments and their effect on
flashover. In addition to his original experimental investigations,
Dr. Miller has written a series of reviews of anode phenomena, which have
established a uniform vocabulary and nomenclature in this field, and have
unified diverse and seemingly contradictory observations into a sensible
framework. Miller has further served the discharge and electrical
insulation in vacuum community by compiling an extensive bibliography on
vacuum breakdown and vacuum arcs, which served as a basic research tool
for a generation of investigators, and by serving as treasurer of the Permanent
International Scientific Committee of these Symposia.
[©1996].
