Ion behavior and interelectrode breakdown voltage of a drift tube

TL;DR

This study experimentally investigates how ion behavior and interelectrode breakdown voltage in a drift tube are affected by voltage, pressure, and electrode shape, revealing exponential and nonlinear relationships.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data and analysis on the effects of voltage, pressure, and electrode shape on ion behavior and breakdown voltage in drift tubes.

Findings

Ion intensity increases exponentially with voltage

Ion intensity decreases exponentially with pressure

Breakdown voltage varies nonlinearly with pressure

Abstract

We experimentally studied ion behavior and interelectrode breakdown voltage. The ion behavior of a drift tube directly influences the detection of ion intensity, and then influences the detection sensitivity of a system. Interelectrode voltage and pressure directly influence the ion behavior. Gas discharge between electrodes influences the adjustments required for interelectrode voltage. The experimental results show: ion intensity increases exponentially with the increment of voltage between drift electrodes; ion intensity decreases exponentially as pressure increases; with the increment of pressure, the breakdown voltage at first decreases, and then increases; ion injection has a significant influence on breakdown voltage, and this influence depends on the pressure and shapes of the electrodes. We explain the results above through assumptions and by mathematical methods.