Review of Present Understanding of Electrode Phenomena

Electrode phenomena describing the current transition from an ionized gas to a solid body occur in many forms and are of great practical importance. Since 1972 researchers from industry, research institutes, and universities gathered in a regular series of workshops for mutual information and organized preparation of future activities. This report summarizes experiences collected during the "Vth Workshop on Electrode Phenomena" in Berlin from 24 to 27 May 1982. The emphasis was on high current density cathode and anode phenomena and on unipolar arcs. Information about the unipolar arcs is still in a pioneering state. A summary of the anode phenomena presented during the meeting describes the state quite satisfactory and is given in this paper. For the cathode phenomena, which were the main subject of the conference, the author gives a summarizing classification in this review. An outlook on future worth-while topics is added.