Kinetics of the Electrons in Striations of Spherical Glow Discharges

Recent observations of spherical striations in large-volume nitrogen dcdischarges with a central anode have stimulated investigations of thenonlocal electron kinetics in these striations by solving the spatiallyinhomogeneous Boltzmann equation adapted to spherical geometry. Becausethe radial course of the electric potential is largely unknown in thisdischarge, different models concerning its radial course have been developedand used. These models are based on the measured radii of the striationsand the assumption that the potential drop between successive striationsdoes not change. As a consequence, with decreasing distance between thestriations the electric field strongly increases toward the centralanode. It has been found that spherical striations are only obtained ifthe electric field is strongly modulated. In this case, a highly nonlocalbehavior of the velocity distribution function and strongly modulatedradial courses of the macroscopic quantities have been obtained.