Formative Time Delay in Nitrogen Discharges at Low Pressure

In this paper the formative time delay in nitrogen was determined from statistically based measurements of electrical breakdown time delay. The measurements were carried out under different conditions on a newlydesigned gas tube with a plane‐parallel electrode system made from copper. The avalanche growth was followed based on a simple analytical model agreeing well with the experimental data. The dependencies of the formative time delay on the working voltage and the electron yields in the interelectrode space originating from residual states were found. A developed approximate model for the formative time delay has shown fits with the experimental data better than other models discussed in the literature. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)