Formation of a volume discharge at a subnanosecond rise time of the voltage pulse

A study is made of the formation of a volume discharge in atmospheric-pressure air in a nonuniform electric field without additional preionization. It is shown that the spatial distribution of the plasma glow between a plane and a spherical (as well as a point) electrode at a subnanosecond rise time of the high-voltage pulse is volumetric in character. The change of the voltage polarity does not qualitatively affect the character of the glow. The propagation of a spherical ionization wave in nitrogen is calculated in the drift-diffusion approximation. The fact that the character of the discharge glow is essentially independent of the voltage polarity is explained by the multiplication of the background electrons in the dense working gas. (c) 2005 Pleiades Publishing, Inc.