The paper relates to the investigations of a low-current discharge in a vortex airflow with the electrode configuration corresponding to classical coaxial plasmatron. The gas flow rate is varied from 0.1 to 0.3 g/s at an inner diameter of the plasmatron nozzle of 5 mm. The discharge is powered by dc voltage via a ballast resistor. Typical averaged current is changed from 0.06 to 0.15 A so that a maximum averaged power dissipated in the discharge amounts to 160 W. In these conditions, a luminous gas region at the plasmatron exit, which in most publications is associated with a plasma jet, is observed. The method for the jet diagnostics based on a usage of the additional electrodes at the plasmatron exit has been proposed. The main idea of the experiments is the elucidation of the problem whether the jet actually represents the plasma area or we have to apply the term “plasma” with care. In particular, in the case under discussion the main charged particles in the jet are electrons that are emitted from a plasma column located in the plasmatron nozzle. The model that describes the formation of electron flow in the jet has been proposed. Typical electron density in the jet estimated with a usage of the model is at a level of 109 cm−3.

中文翻译：

---

气流中小电流放电的电流维持特性

该论文涉及涡流气流中低电流放电的研究，其电极配置对应于经典同轴等离子管。在等离子管喷嘴的内径为 5 毫米时，气体流速在 0.1 至 0.3 克/秒之间变化。放电由直流电压通过镇流电阻供电。典型的平均电流从 0.06 A 变为 0.15 A，因此放电中耗散的最大平均功率为 160 W。在这些条件下，等离子管出口处的发光气体区域（在大多数出版物中与等离子射流相关）为观察到的。已经提出了基于在等离子管出口处使用附加电极的射流诊断方法。实验的主要思想是阐明射流实际上代表等离子体区域还是我们必须谨慎应用术语“等离子体”的问题。特别地，在所讨论的情况下，射流中的主要带电粒子是从位于等离子管喷嘴中的等离子柱发射的电子。已经提出了描述射流中电子流形成的模型。使用该模型估计的射流中的典型电子密度为 109 cm-3。