Electron Flow in Gas Diodes. II. Mobility-Limited Flow for Collision Frequency Proportional to Electron Speed

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Abstract
The voltage (V) dependence of the mobility‐limited electron current density (J) in a gas‐filled diode is calculated for low pressure [(m/M)1/2νc/νp]c/νp as well as for high pressure [1<(m/M)1/2νc/νp], where m/M is the ratio of electron mass to atom mass, νc is the average frequency of elastic collisions between electrons and gas atoms, and νp is the electron‐plasma frequency. It is assumed that νc(C) is proportional to the electron speed c, which corresponds to the case of an energy‐independent mean free path. It is shown that J should be proportional to V3/2p−1d−3 for low pressure, and to V3/2p−1/2d−6/2 for high pressure, where p is the gas pressure and d is the (planar) diode spacing. Corresponding expressions for cylindrical geometry are derived and compared with experiment.