Analysis of the arc mode operation of the cesium vapor thermionic energy converter
- 1 May 1963
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in Proceedings of the IEEE
- Vol. 51 (5) , 748-754
- https://doi.org/10.1109/proc.1963.2267
Abstract
An analysis of the cesium vapor arc discharge is presented. It is assumed that the discharge operates in the ball-of-fire mode, that cumulative ionization via the two resonance excited states is the predominant ionization mechanism, and that trapping in the plasma of the resonance radiation results in a long effective lifetime of the excited states. A volt-ampere characteristic is derived for the cesium arc and the results are applied to the thermionic energy converter. Good qualitative agreement is obtained between theory and experiment.Keywords
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