Abstract
The voltage (V) dependence of the mobility-limited electron current density (J) in a gas-filled diode is calculated for low pressure [(m/M)1/2νc/νp]<1 <νc/νp as well as for high pressure [1<(m/M)1/2νc/νp], where m/M is the ratio of electron mass to atom mass, νc is the average frequency of elastic collisions between electrons and gas atoms, and νp is the electron-plasma frequency. It is assumed that νc(C) is proportional to the electron speed c, which corresponds to the case of an energy-independent mean free path. It is shown that J should be proportional to V3/2p−1d−3 for low pressure, and to V3/2p−1/2d−6/2 for high pressure, where p is the gas pressure and d is the (planar) diode spacing. Corresponding expressions for cylindrical geometry are derived and compared with experiment.
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