Dependence of the transition from Townsend to glow discharge on secondary emission

In a recent paper, Šijačić and Ebert [Phys. Rev. E. 66, 006410 (2002)] systematically studied the transition from Townsend to glow discharge, referring to older work by von Engel and M. Steenbeck [Elektrische Gasentladungen. Ihre Physik und Technik (Springer, Berlin 1934), Vol. II] up to Raizer [Gas Discharge Physics (Springer, Berlin, 1991)]. Šijačić and Ebert stated that this transition strongly depends on secondary emission [Formula presented] from the cathode. We show here that the earlier results of von Engel and Raizer on the small current expansion about the Townsend limit actually are the limit of small [Formula presented] of the Šijačić and Ebert expression, and that for larger [Formula presented] the old and the Šijačić and Ebert new results vary by no more than a factor of 2. We discuss the [Formula presented] dependence of the transition, which is rather strong for short gaps.

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techReport Dependence of the transition from Townsend to glow discharge on secondary emission Y.P. Raizer (Yuri), U. Ebert (Ute) and D.D. Šijačić (Danijela)
techReport Dependence of the transition from Townsend to glow discharge on secondary emission Y.P. Raizer (Yuri), U. Ebert (Ute) and D.D. Šijačić (Danijela)
techReport Dependence of the transition from Townsend to glow discharge on secondary emission Y.P. Raizer (Yuri), U. Ebert (Ute) and D.D. Šijačić (Danijela)
techReport Dependence of the transition from Townsend to glow discharge on secondary emission Y.P. Raizer (Yuri), U. Ebert (Ute) and D.D. Šijačić (Danijela)