Imbalance of the charge on a carrier moving through a gaseous medium

Abstract

The paper is focused on the charge exchange processes occurring between small metal charge carrier and the gaseous medium through which the carriers travels; these processes lead to a charge imbalance. In most of the experiments, a small lead pellet was propelled at different speeds through air under the ballistic conditions. The charge carried by the pellet was tracked along the carrier trajectory by means of induction rings. In all the experiments, the charge on the moving pellet was measured using the ballistic method, and its initial and final charges determined by static Faraday cups. The experiments determined the effect of the speed and the carrier potential on the magnitude of the charge imbalance. The studied pellets' charges were ranging from +2/spl times/ 10/sup -9/ to +6/spl times/ 10/sup -9/C, and the pellet speeds was 22.9 m /spl middot/s/sup -1/. The charge loss, incurred by the pellet during the 40 ms, which the pellet needed to cross a 96 cm path, was 11%.