Effect of negative glow on the elementary processes occurring in the cathode region of a glow discharge

The role of the negative glow in producing charge carriers and the effect of this region on the elementary processes occurring in the region of cathode potential drop between plane parallel electrodes is considered in this paper.An estimate of the value of positive ion current passing to the cathode from the negative glow is made for nickel, copper, iron, and aluminum cathodes in hydrogen, and for an iron cathode in argon neon, and helium at 1 mm Hg pressure.Based on the values obtained for the ion current in the Crookes dark space, the electric field intensity and potential distributions are calculated and found to be in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.