  Motivated by the possibility of guiding daughter ions from double beta decay
events to single-ion sensors for barium tagging, the NEXT collaboration is
developing a program of R&D to test radio frequency (RF) carpets for ion
transport in high pressure xenon gas. This would require carpet functionality
in regimes at higher pressures than have been previously reported, implying
correspondingly larger electrode voltages than in existing systems. This mode
of operation appears plausible for contemporary RF-carpet geometries due to the
higher predicted breakdown strength of high pressure xenon relative to low
pressure helium, the working medium in most existing RF carpet devices. In this
paper we present the first measurements of the high voltage dielectric strength
of xenon gas at high pressure and at the relevant RF frequencies for ion
transport (in the 10 MHz range), as well as new DC and RF measurements of the
dielectric strengths of high pressure argon and helium gases at small gap
sizes. We find breakdown voltages that are compatible with stable RF carpet
operation given the gas, pressure, voltage, materials and geometry of interest.
