Spatial Non-uniformity in Discharges in Low Pressure Helium and Neon

Abstract

Low current, low pressure, steady state Townsend discharges in helium and neon gas have been investigated using the photon flux technique. Such discharges have been found to exhibit spatial non-uniformity resulting in luminous layers throughout the discharge. The separation and structure of these layers has been investigated experimentally in both gases along with the wavelength distribution of the photon flux. A Monte Carlo simulation of the discharge in neon has been used to gain information on the cross sections necessary to describe these discharges. It is found that direct excitaton of ground state atoms to the resonance level of each gas is less than indicated by some published cross section data.