On the processes of charging the wall of a discharge tube under external illumination

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Abstract

The breakdown and discharge ignition in discharge tubes with a diameter of about 1 cm and a length of 80 cm in inert gases (neon, argon, krypton, and xenon) at a pressure of about 1 Torr are studied experimentally. The tube is illuminated by radiation from continuous or pulsed light sources in the visible spectrum range. A ramp voltage with a small slope steepness (of about 50 V/s) is applied to the anode of the tube. Previously, the authors established that under these conditions external illumination can increase the breakdown voltage in several times. This effect was explained by the appearance of a charge on the tube wall as a result of photodesorption of electrons from its inner surface. In this work, it is found that charging the wall begins only when the anode potential approaches the breakdown potential measured without illumination. In addition, it is found that during the increase in the voltage on the anode and charging the wall, the anode potential differs from the breakdown potential by a constant and small value (less than 200 V).

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About the authors

А. V. Meshchanov

St. Petersburg State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: y.ionikh@spbu.ru
Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

Yu. Z. Ionikh

St. Petersburg State University

Email: y.ionikh@spbu.ru
Russian Federation, St. Petersburg

References

  1. Ионих Ю.З. // Физика плазмы. 2020. Т. 46. С. 928.
  2. Meshchanov A.V., Shishpanov A.I, Bazhin P.S., Ionikh Y.Z. // Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 2022. V. 31.114010.
  3. Мещанов А. В., Дьячков С. А., Ионих Ю. З. // Физика плазмы. 2023. Т. 49. С. 924.
  4. Meshchanov A.V., Shishpanov A.I., Ionikh Y.Z. // J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 2024. V. 57. 015204.
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  7. Мещанов А.В., Ионих Ю.З., Акишев Ю.С. // Физика плазмы. 2020. Т. 46. С. 1043
  8. Грановский В.Л. Электрический ток в газе. Установившейся ток. М.: Наука, 1971.

Supplementary files

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1. JATS XML
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2. Fig. 1. Dependence of the breakdown potential on the rate of increase of the anode voltage in the dark (1) and when the tube is illuminated by fluorescent lamps (2) [3].

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3. Fig. 2. Example of anode voltage diagram (for clarity, the DE FG gap is stretched).

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4. Fig. 3. Oscillograms of the anode voltage when a sequence of two pulses with a linearly increasing front with a slope of 43.5 V/s and 7.2∙10 5 V/s is applied to the anode and when illuminated by fluorescent lamps. The value t = 0 corresponds to the breakdown moment.

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5. Fig. 4. Dependence of breakdown voltage on the anode potential in different gases. Fig. 4a also shows the values ​​of the surface charge of the wall, and Fig. 4c shows RP – breakdown by a rectangular pulse. The rate of increase of the anode voltage dU 1 / dt = 37–48 V/s, illumination by fluorescent lamps.

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6. Fig. 5. Dependence of the breakdown voltage on the duration of the light pulse. The leading edge of the pulse coincides with the moment of the beginning of the growth of the anode voltage. The inset shows the dependence of the anode voltage on time. The light source is a diode laser.

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7. Fig. 6. Dependence of the breakdown voltage on the delay duration of the leading edge of the light pulse relative to the start of the anode voltage increase. The pulse ends later than the breakdown and discharge ignition. The inset shows the dependence of the anode voltage on time. Lighting with a LED

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8. Fig. 7. Time dependence of the anode potential in the presence of an initial jump.

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9. Fig. 8. Time dependence of the anode potential in the presence of an initial jump on a larger scale.

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10. Fig. 9. Diagrams of the anode potential and (presumably) wall potential.

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11. Fig. 10. Capacitive probe signals during recording of an ionization wave initiated by a negative polarity pulse with an amplitude of –1.5 kV applied to the cathode. The anode potential is 0 (a) and +3.5 kV (b). The numbers near the curves are the distance from the cathode in centimeters.

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12. Fig. 11. xt-diagrams of the ionization wave initiated by a negative polarity pulse with an amplitude of –1.5 kV applied to the cathode, at different values ​​of the anode potential (indicated by numbers near the curves).

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