Article
Article
Electrical conduction in gases
Article By:
Miller, Glenn H. Weapons Effects Division, Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.218000
The process by means of which a net charge is transported through a gaseous medium. It encompasses a variety of effects and modes of conduction, ranging from the Townsend discharge at one extreme to the arc discharge at the other. The current in these two cases ranges from a fraction of 1 microampere in the first to thousands of amperes in the second. It covers a pressure range from less than 10-4 atm (10 pascals) to greater than 1 atm (105 pascals). See also: Arc discharge; Townsend discharge
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