The Use of DC Glow Discharges as Undergraduate Educational Tools
Authors: Stephanie A. Wissel and Andrew Zwicker, Jerry Ross, and Sophia Gershman
Abstract:
Plasmas have a beguiling way of getting students excited and interested in physics. We argue that
plasmas can and should be incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum as both demonstrations
and advanced investigations of electromagnetism and quantum effects. Our device, based on a
direct current (DC) glow discharge tube, allows for a number of experiments into topics such as
electrical breakdown, spectroscopy, magnetism, and electron temperature.
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Submitted to: American Journal of Physics (October, 2012)
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Download PPPL-4825 (pdf KB pp)
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