Abstract
Gas breakdown in nitrogen, air, and oxygen in a dc electric field at various interelectrode distances L is studied experimentally. A scaling law for a low-pressure gas breakdown U dc =f(pL, L/R) is deduced. According to this scaling law, the breakdown voltage U dc is a function not only of the product of the gas pressure p and the gap length L, but also of the ratio of the gap length L to the chamber radius R. It is shown that, for any dimensions of the cylindrical discharge chamber (in the range of L/R under investigation), the ratio of the breakdown electric field to the gas pressure p at the minimum of the ignition curve remains constant: (E dc /p)min≈const. A method for calculating the ignition curve in a cylindrical discharge chamber with arbitrary values of L and R is proposed.
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Translated from Pis’ma v Zhurnal Éksperimental’no\(\overset{\lower0.5em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\smile}$}}{l} \) i Teoretichesko\(\overset{\lower0.5em\hbox{$\smash{\scriptscriptstyle\smile}$}}{l} \) Fiziki, Vol. 72, No. 2, 2000, pp. 49–53.
Original Russian Text Copyright © 2000 by Lisovsky, Yakovin.
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1134/1.1334705.