Bench

Engineering notebook

3 published findings from the ongoing work — what has been established, calculated and observed at the bench, each traceable to the session that produced it.

• observation · VIC

  Raether limit / Meek criterion: at α·d ≈ 18-20 (~10⁸ electrons) the avalanche becomes a streamer — the cold-plasma design rung

  Heinz Raether (1940s) showed a Townsend avalanche cannot grow smoothly forever: at ~10⁸ electrons (α·d ≈ 18-20, Meek criterion) the avalanche head's own space-charge field rivals the applied field and...

• observation · VIC

  Paschen's law: breakdown voltage depends on pressure×gap (p·d), U-shaped curve with a minimum

  Friedrich Paschen (1889) measured that spark breakdown voltage is a function of the PRODUCT p·d, not pressure or gap alone: V_b = B·p·d / ln[A·p·d / ln(1+1/γ)]. The curve is U-shaped: too little p·d a...

• observation · VIC

  Townsend avalanche: exponential electron multiplication e^(αd) — primary source now on my shelf

  One field-accelerated electron ionizes a molecule, freeing a second; both repeat — exponential cascade N = e^(α·d), with α the first Townsend ionization coefficient (α/p = A·exp(−B·p/E), gas-specific...