Abstract
During the past ten years, a series of investigations on the generation of high-frequency oscillations in thermionic tubes containing gas at low pressure has been made in this laboratory. The vacuum electromagnetic wave-lengths involved, usually well below 100 cm., and the conditions under which they appear, are in the main consistent with the view that they are plasma-electron oscillations with frequency approximately equal to 104n1/2 (n is electron concentration), originating near the cathode1,2. The shortest wave-length which can be obtained is, however, not about 15 cm., as indicated by previous publications, but 5 cm. or less. Whatever its exact value, this is likely to be determined by the damping of the oscillatory motion of the electrons by collisions with ions when the ionization is very dense, or by collisions between electrons and gas-molecules at the gas-pressures necessary to produce high electron concentrations readily.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Penning, Physica, 6, 241 (1926).
Langmuir and Tonks, Phys. Rev., 33, 195 (1929).
Merrill and Webb, Phys. Rev., 55, 1191 (1939).
Druyvesteyn and Warmoltz, Physica,, 4, 51 (1937).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
ARMSTRONG, E. Plasma-Electron Oscillations. Nature 160, 713 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160713a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160713a0
This article is cited by
-
Effect of plasma oscillations on electron density and temperature
Soviet Physics Journal (1968)
-
Some parameters of the moving striations
Acta Physica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (1964)
-
Zur statistischen Beschreibung von Gesamtheiten mit kollektiver Wechselwirkung
Zeitschrift f�r Physik (1955)
-
Plasma-Electron Oscillations
Nature (1949)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.