INVESTIGATION OF THE DIFFERENT DISCHARGE MECHANISMS IN PSEUDOSPARK DISCHARGES

The intention of this paper is to give an overview of recent experimen ts explaining the development and transition of the discharge phases i n a pseudospark. The reported experiments include single gap pseudospa rk discharges in ultra-high-vacuum systems with hydrogen as working ga s, as well as multigap pseudospark discharges in argon. Temporally and spatially resolved framing photography, spectrometry, raster electron microscopy and time resolved electrical measurements are presented. T he experiments comprise a current range of some hundreds of amps to 60 kA. The results are used to specify the four characteristic phases of the pseudospark: Townsend-, hollow cathode-, high current- and metal vapor are phase.