Luminous Fronts in Pulsed Gas Discharges

Abstract
Recent experiments in which an intense luminosity was observed in side tubes connected to an electrodeless discharge ring have been duplicated using a discharge with electrodes. It is concluded that a large part of the luminosity observed is the result of a moving front of disturbance rather than the decay of an ejected tongue of excited gas. Measurements made of the velocity of advance of this front and its dependence on gas parameters show that the front advances into the side tube with a speed proportional to the estimated velocity of sound in the hot gas of the main discharge. Intense continua accompany discrete spectra in the fronts, particularly in hydrogen, indicating that recombination may play a large part in producing the luminosity observed.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: