Transients in Townsend Discharges
- 15 March 1948
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 73 (6) , 570-583
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrev.73.570
Abstract
An analysis is made of the transients in Townsend discharges for certain stepwise variations in the stimulating photoelectric current from the cathode, while the voltage across the tube is held steady. The method of analysis can be readily generalized to include any type of variation in the photoelectric current. The steady-state current, including the effects of metastable molecules produced in the gas, is also derived; from this result it is shown that the second Townsend coefficient is a function of the electrode spacing. The work also suggests experiments which can separate the radiation, ion, and metastable contributions to the second Townsend coefficient.Keywords
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