THE DETERMINATION OF THE GAS TEMPERATURE FROM SHOCK-WAVES OCCURRING IN THE AFTERGLOW OF PULSED DISCHARGES

In this work we determined the gas temperatures of neon and helium aft erglow plasmas using the frequencies of standing waves which are produ ced during the breakdown of a high-voltage pulsed discharge. The tempe rature does not decay significantly and may be considered almost const ant during the observed afterglow periods. The mean gas temperature va lues obtained in neon and helium afterglows are found to be in good ag reement with the values obtained by microwave methods under similar di scharge conditions.