Experimental study of the effective secondary emission coefficient for rare gases and copper electrodes

Measurements are made for variations of the effective secondary emission coefficient gamma with reduced field fly. Plane-parallel copper electrodes (5 cm diameter) are sustained with a de voltage (0 < V< 1 kV) and can be separated by a variable distance (2 mm<d<1 cm). Current-voltage characteristics, Paschen curves, and gamma(E/p) variations are shown for various rare gases (neon, argon, krypton, and xenon), gamma(E/p) values are deduced from Paschen curves and published alpha/p(E/p) variations by using the self-sustain condition. Comparisons are made with various experimental or calculated results taken from the literature. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(98)08111-0].