Observation of Self-Quenching Streamers in Quenching Gases of Hydrocarbons and Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

Basic properties of the self-quenching streamer transition have been studied for quenching gases of CH/sub 4/, C/sub 2/H/sub 6/, C/sub 3/H/sub 8/, isoC/sub 4/H/sub 10/ and CO/sub 2/ without argon. It is found that X-rays do not induce clearly the transition, but ..cap alpha..-rays, which are incident in normal to the counter anode, induce it evidently in all the quenching gases. This suggests that argon is important but is not essential to obtain the transition. Instead of energetic photons from excited argon molecular states for the transition, possible origins of energetic photons in the quenching gases are discussed.