A relation between the mean average energy of accelerated ions epsilon i and the maximum rate of current rise in a vacuum discharge is established. The relationship takes the power form epsilon i varies as i1.3 for different ion species over a wide range of discharge parameters for i>i0=3*108 A s-1. For smaller values of i the corresponding value of epsilon i is almost independent of the discharge parameters. The ion mass and charge-dependence of epsilon i are also discussed.
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