Influence of Clean Conditions on the Current-Voltage and Switching Characteristics of the Glow Discharge

High-voltage power plasma switches have long been used in various fields of science and technology, in particular, in creation of switching devices. Progress in their development is determined, among other things, by the degree of study of physical principles, which lead to improvement of switching parameters: switching speed, time delay of discharge development and coefficient of efficiency. In the present work abnormal glow discharge with cold cathode made of molybdenum and silicon carbide under pure conditions was investigated, which allow to decompose the complicated process of discharge development into elementary physical processes. It is shown that purity of working gas, working volume and cathode surface leads to changes in emission processes in discharges with cold cathodes and, accordingly, in current-voltage characteristics. The composition of the discharge volume by means of atomic emission analysis was investigated. It is shown that the training of silicon carbide and molybdenum cathodes by discharge at the same pressure leads to significant changes in the behavior of current-voltage characteristics. It is shown that as the purity of the system increases, the rate of current growth changes as a function of the applied voltage to the discharge cell, which explains the improvement in switching devices.