| Abstract: | Work is described in which it was shown experimentally that a modulated glow discharge with striations acquires an additional characteristic which can be called spatial phase of the oscillations. In fact, this characteristic reflects the spatial distribution of the maxima of the time-averaged integrated plasma luminescence on the tube axis which arises due to the influence of the current modulation on traveling striations. It was discovered that for fixed discharge conditions such a distribution remains constant when the discharge is switched off and on, i.e., it is not random. An experimental investigation was made of the influence of a magnetic field on the spatial phase of the modulated ionization waves. It was found that in a low-pressure glow discharge with small currents the striations are initiated in the cathode region. The anode region does not directly initiate the striations but it influences their spatial phase characteristics through a feedback mechanism. State University, St. Petersburg. Ukhtinskii Industrial Institute. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 108–113, January, 1997. |
