Abstract
AN experimental single-anode mercury pool valve with a saturated-vapour pressure of about 5 µm mercury was operated in a single-phase single-way rectifier circuit with resistance load to pass at a frequency of 50 c/s half-sinusoidal current pulses with a crest value of 20 amp, and superimposed on each of these basic pulses was a further pulse of half-sinusoidal wave-shape with a crest value of 80 amp and a duration of 14 µsec at the base, the superimposed pulses being produced in synchronism with the basic pulses by periodically discharging through an appropriate circuit arrangement a capacitor which was continuously being charged through a high resistance from a d.c. source. The phase difference between basic and superimposed pulses was adjustable and was set at 60° in respect of the starting instants. An electron multiplier photovalve with quartz window was used in combination with a high-speed cathode-ray oscillograph to obtain and to record the wave-shape of optical radiation intensity from the plasma in the valve as follows; (a) in the anode region; (b) in the region between anode and cathode; (c) in the same region but with the radiation passing through a quartz window attached at an appropriately placed outlet port in the glass envelope of the valve; (d) in the cathode region. Fig. 1 shows the oscillograms which for clarity of demonstration of some effects were obtained at two different speeds of the time base.
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References
Feinberg, R., and Roberts, M. E., Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., 110 (1963) (in the press).
Feinberg, R., and Roberts, M. E., Proc. Fifth Intern. Conf. Ionisation Phenomena in Gases, Munich, 1961, 1, 1060; J. Electronics and Control, 11, 115, 297 (1961).
Pavlichenko, O. S., and Dushin, L. A., Optics and Spectroscopy, 12, 301 (1962).
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FEINBERG, R., ROBERTS, M. An Optical-radiation Quenching Effect following a Current Pulse superimposed on a Background Arc Plasma in a Low-pressure Mercury Vapour Valve. Nature 198, 471–472 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/198471b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/198471b0
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