Nature of Spontaneous Oscillations in a Cesium Diode Energy Converter

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In an attempt to understand the nature of the oscillations that are observed in plasma diodes the usual collision-free model is examined. The equations describing the model are simplified by neglecting the time-dependent term in the Boltzmann equation for the electrons. Even this simplification does not readily yield quantitative predictions about the frequency or form of the oscillations, or even about the conditions under which they are likely to occur. However we introduce a criterion of stability which allows us to predict a possible instability in the steady-state condition which arises because the electrons can redistribute their charge more rapidly than the ions. The simplified equations and the criterion together lead to a good qualitative and a partial quantitative understanding of a particular case. The particular case can be regarded as the epitome of the general case, and the arguments used in it seem capable of the necessary extension to cover all instances of this sort of spontaneous oscillation.