A light effect in chlorine under electric discharge: influence of the intensity and frequency

Abstract

Further, work on the diminution of the current which occurs on irradiation of chlorine has shown that several factors, some mutually exclusive, determine the magnitude of the phenomenon, such as the various electrical quantities; the electrode spacing, area and 'ageing' under the discharge; the nature of the gas, its temperature and especially the pressure. The chief difficulty in ascertaining the optimum conditions for the effect was that more than a limited variation of one of these altered others so much as to reduce the comparability of results. Furthermore, there was a limit to the influence of any of them on the decrease of current; for example, within a restricted pressure range and at a given applied potential, it increases to a maximum with decrease of pressure; it is negligible when the pressure is small. A similar limiting effect obtains with increase of applied potential at constant pressure.