Penning Discharge

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Penning Discharge

</dt>
A direct-current discharge where electrons are forced to oscillate between two opposed cathodes and are restrained from going to the surrounding anode by the presence of a magnetic field. </dd>
It is sometimes referred to as a pig discharge since the device was originally used as an ionization gage (Penning ionization gage). It is used as a plasma-beam source by permitting the plasma to stream out along the magnetic field through a hole in one of the cathodes. [[/a>|/a> ]]

References

This article is based on NASA's Dictionary of Technical Terms for Aerospace Use