Abstract

The review is devoted to studies of the processes and mechanisms of ignition of a glow discharge in tubes whose length significantly exceeds their diameter (long discharge tubes) at low pressures (~10 Torr and lower) and moderate voltage rise rates (~1 kV/μs and lower). The electric field in such tubes before a breakdown is substantially nonuniform. Therefore, a breakdown occurs after an ionization wave (or waves) passes through the discharge gap at a speed of ~10⁵–10⁷ cm/s. This makes the characteristics of the breakdown in long tubes significantly different from the breakdown between large and closely spaced electrodes, where the electric field is uniform before the breakdown and where the Townsend or, under strong overvoltage, streamer mechanism is realized. On the other hand, the nature of these processes is very different from those occurring in nanosecond discharges, which arise at voltages with a steepness of ~1 kV/ns and higher and are associated with high-speed (~10⁹ cm/s) ionization waves. The review is based on the materials of experimental and computational works published from 1938 to 2020. Breakdown processes, optical and electrical characteristics of the discharge gap during breakdown, and the influence of the external circuit parameters and external actions (shielding and illumination by external sources of visible radiation) are analyzed.

中文翻译：

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低压下长放电管的电击穿（综述）

摘要

这篇综述专门研究在低压（〜10 Torr和更低）和中等电压上升速率（〜1 kV //）下长度显着超过其直径（长放电管）的管中辉光放电的点火过程和机理。 μs及更低）。这种管子在击穿之前的电场基本上是不均匀的。因此，在一个或多个电离波以〜10 ⁵ –10 ⁷的速度通过放电间隙后会发生击穿。厘米/秒 这使得长管中的击穿特性与大型且间隔较近的电极之间的击穿显着不同，后者在击穿之前电场均匀，并且在汤森（Townsend）或在强过电压下实现流光机制。另一方面，这些过程的性质与纳秒级放电中发生的过程有很大不同，纳秒级放电的出现在陡峭度约为1 kV / ns的电压或更高的电压下，并与高速（〜10 ⁹cm / s）电离波。综述基于1938年至2020年发布的实验和计算工作材料。击穿过程，击穿过程中放电间隙的光学和电气特性，以及外部电路参数和外部动作（外部源的屏蔽和照明）的影响可见辐射）。