Short Period Investigations in Spark Discharges

Abstract

With the help of an automatic electronic switch placed between phototube and recorder of a spectrograph, the intensities as function of time of a series of spectrum lines produced in a spark have been recorded. The changes as function of the position in the gap were also investigated. There is an extensive afterglow which in general decays faster for the higher stages of ionization. The continuous background has the same characteristics as the spectrum of the surrounding gas. The changes in self-absorption excitation and line profile were also studied as function of time and partly correlated with the fundamental processes responsible for the afterglow.