The Influence of the Cathode Surface State on the Spark Voltage in the Townsend Discharge Domain

Townsend 방전영역의 불꽃전압에 미치는 음극표면상태의 영향

There are a great number of papers on the Townsend discharge in gases, and many of them are concerned with the effect of the cathode. It has been regarded that there are two kinds of effect of the electrodes, especially of the cathode; (a) the effect caused by the difference of the cathode material and (b) the effect by the change of the cathode surface state even in the same material. Both of them may change the secondary coefficient following after the change of the work function, and the atter may further change the primary ionization coefficient as foreign atoms on the surface may be dseorbed in sparks to decrease the purity of the gas. Thus the two effects must be investigated independently to study the roles of the cathode in gas discharges. In this report the effect of the cathode material on the sparking voltage is described. The experiment is also carried out under the condition that the desorption of impurities from the cathode be negligible. From these the new correlativity between the work function of the cathode and the sparking voltage is obtained. In addition, the interesting character of the minimum point of the Paschen's curve can be found.