A series of measurements have been made on a magnetically rotated glow discharge over a range of pressure of 24–53 mbars. An increase in the current at which the glow‐to‐arc transition occurred from 550 mA for a stationary discharge to 2.5 A at a magnetic flux density of 0.025 T for a rotating discharge, with a corresponding power increase at the glow‐to‐arc transition from 250 to 1540 W was measured. At magnetic flux densities of about 0.017 T a discontinuity in the discharge voltage was observed which was caused by the discharge rotating in its own wake. Results from other sources have indicated that a glow discharge can be maintained up to discharge currents of 10 A, however, the results obtained here under identical conditions indicate that the discharge was not a glow but an arc. The results have important implications to power limited glow‐discharge processes such as CO2lasers, ozone generation, and low‐pressure chemical synthesis.
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