Study of striations in a cylindrical glow discharge

One of the best known, and yet least understood phenomena in gas discharges in the striation that occurs in a glow discharge. These are manifestations of ionization oscillations and waves where periodic changes in electron density are due to alternation of regions of predominant production and removal of electrons. Thus, the distribution of light intensity approximately follows that of electron density ne. The ease to obtain them provides an interesting example for educational purposes, where a wealth of concepts can be tested. The purpose of this work is to study such striations for a cylindrical discharge with plane electrodes, for a wide range of filling pressures and voltages in He, N, and Ar. A full interpretation of the experiments is attempted in terms of probe measurements of distributions of Te and the striated discharge. (author). 4 refs, 6 figs