Theoretical and experimental investigation of pulsed discharges in gases

Abstract

A numerical investigation was made of the properties of pulsed self-sustained and nonself-sustained discharges in gases, and of the ways in which their development was affected by nonmonotonic dependences of the electron drift velocity on the ratio of the field to the density and on other parameters. The procedure used made it possible to perform calculations for discharges having large discharge gaps and, at the same time, to study the detailed distributions of the electric field and of the ion and electron densities in the discharge gap. The calculations were in good agreement with the results of an experimental investigation of a large-volume nonself-sustained discharge.