Instability of a low-pressure Na–noble-gas discharge

Abstract
A new type of discharge instability is reported for a low‐pressure Na–noble‐gas discharge (∼5×10−3 Torr Na; 5.5 Torr Ne‐Ar, 1% Ar). The voltage‐current (VI) characteristic is shown to be multivalued in the voltage. The resulting instability is a discontinuity in the positive column which propagates in the direction of electron particle flow with velocity between about 105 and 5×105 cm/s.
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