Mechanism of Cataphoretic Segregation in Inert Gas Glow Discharges

摘要

The collection of a minority gas species at the cathode in a glow discharge, termed cataphoresis, appears not to have been completely successfully explained. Observation indicates that in all cases, the minority gas segregated at the cathode, must be capable of being very effectively ionized by the vehicular gas. The recent discovery of the effective creation of ion complexes such as NeHe+ and NeA+ in pressure dependent reactions above some mm of Hg pressure by Oskam, the independent direct observation of these ions and the production of ions such as HeH+, NeH+, and AH+ with 1% H2 in the inert gas by Weimer, using the effusion mass spectrometer of Pahl, render a basis for the extension of the Druyvesteyn theory developed for metallic ions in inert gas to the general process, aid in the explanation of the Hg‐Xe anomaly observed by Kenty, and indicate certain needed corrections which are acting to make the process more efficient.