This paper describes the investigation of an atmospheric-pressure glow discharge in air at a current of 0.05-0.3 A. Before the glow discharge is established, a preliminary nonsteady temporal stage is available in the gap. The principal process, which governs with the nonsteady-state discharge behavior, is the glow-to-spark transition phenomenon. The transition is initiated due to the explosive emission instability in the near-cathode layer of glow-type discharge that results in a microexplosion of the cathode surface and appearing of a spark cathode spot. At a low current, the spot is extinguished, so that the discharge starts burning again in one of the glow modes. After that, a new act of transition occurs and so on. The preliminary nonsteady-state stage ensures two prerequisites. First, an effective gas pressure decreases to a low value. Second, due to microexplosions, conditioning of the cathode surface is provided. Both factors facilitate establishing the normal glow discharge.Index Terms-Atmospheric-pressure plasma jets, glow-to-spark transition, high-pressure glow discharge.
This paper deals with the investigations of ceramic-metal sealed-off pseudospark switches with an auxiliary glow discharge in the trigger unit. The switches are produced commercially by the Pulsed Technology Ltd., Ryazan, Russia. Attention is concentrated on the switch TPI1-10k/50 (pulsed current-10 kA and anode voltage-up to 50 kV). The schematic design of the devices and the principles of function are described. It is demonstrated that the switch is able to operate with an electric circuit corresponding to the classical hydrogen thyratron and to the thyratron with a grounded grid. In both cases, a delay time to triggering in the vicinity of 100 ns and a nanosecond jitter in the delay time are achievable.Index Terms-Auxiliary glow discharge, grounded grid thyratron, pseudospark switch, pulsed discharge with hollow cathode, trigger unit.
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