An atmospheric pressure glow discharge was generated using a needle-array electrode in nitrogen, and the voltage–current characteristics of the glow discharge were obtained in a range from 1 mA to 60 A. A pulsed high voltage with short rise time under 10 ns was employed to generate streamer discharges simultaneously at all needle tips. The large number of streamer discharges prevented the glow-to-arc transition caused by inhomogeneous thermalization. Semiconductor opening switch diodes were employed as an opening switch to shorten the rise time. The glow voltage was almost constant until the discharge current became 0.3 A, whereas the voltage increased with the current higher than 0.3 A. Electron density and temperature in a positive column of the glow discharge at 60 A were obtained to 1.4×1012cm−3 and 1.3 eV from calculation based on nitrogen swarm data.
Voltage-current (V-I) characteristics of nitrogen glow discharges at 10 torr gas pressure were obtained in a wide discharge current range from 10 mA to 250 A using parallel-plane electrodes. A low inductance capacitor of 1.89 μF and a discharge apparatus with co-axial configuration were used to produce a nitrogen glow discharge with high current. The time-dependent glow voltage was obtained accurately by solving the circuit equation using the measured values of the current and breakdown voltage. Damping resistor was employed to control the glow discharge current and was altered from 0.6 to 225 Ω in order to obtain the V-I characteristics in a wide current range. The glow discharge voltage was almost constant until the whole surface of the cathode was covered with glow, i.e., until the discharge current became 3.0 A under our experimental condition. The voltage, however, increased with the current when the glow covered over the cathode. Electron density and temperature in a positive column of the glow discharge at 250 A discharge current were obtained to 7.4×10
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