Abstract
The effect of space charge on the electric field in a plane-parallel ionization chamber is considered. It is shown that the electric field strength at the plates is considerably higher than in the center of the gap, even when recombination losses amount to only a few %. Consequently, in a chamber which is provided with a system of guard wires or plates, the "saturation curve" obtained experimentally may show polarity effects due to changes in the volume from which ions are collected.
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