Spectrum of the Runaway Electron Beam Generated During a Nanosecond Discharge in Air at Atmospheric Pressure

Abstract

The spectrum of supershort avalanche runaway electron beam generated in air at atmospheric pressure is experimentally investigated using a time-of-flight spectrometer and attenuation curves. It is shown that the maximum of the electron energy distribution for the main (second) group of electrons is less than the energy eUm, where Um is the maximal voltage across the gap, and the difference between these energies depends on the design of the cathode and the interelectrode gap in a gas diode. It is confirmed that there are three groups of electrons with different energies in the runaway electron beam spectrum.