The cold cathode arc model in mercury discharges

Summary form only given. The cathode fall model for the abnormal glow discharge was modified and generalized to describe the cathode phenomena in the cold cathode mercury vapor arc. The sensitivity of calculated discharge parameters to such modifications was examined. Results show that the cathode fall voltage remains fairly constant (7-8 V) with large fractional variations of metastable mercury atoms bombarding the cathode. This result compares very well with experimental waveforms when anode fall and plasma voltage approximations are incorporated