Influence of light from nitrogen-filled lamps on the time delay of electrical breakdown in nitrogen-filled tubes

Investigations of the effect of illumination by nitrogen-filled discharge lamps on nitrogen-filled tubes have shown a decrease of electrical breakdown time delay t d , and dependence of t d on the light intensity and overvoltage. The decrease of t d is a consequence of the increased production of secondary electrons from the cathode induced by the photoelectric effect, which has been confirmed by the fact that I - U characteristics show considerably smaller current flow for the applied voltages than the static breakdown voltage. The experimental results have shown an increase of the photocurrent with an increase of both the light intensity from the discharge lamps and the voltage applied to the nitrogen-filled tube, as a consequence of the photoelectric effect.