until the rate of production of fresh ions is exactly balanced by the recombination of the ions already produced. On application of a small electric field, the positive ions travel to the negative electrode and the negative to the positive.
Since the velocity of the ions between the plates is directly proportional to the strength of the electric field, in a weak field the ions take so long to travel between the electrodes that most of them recombine on the way.
The current observed is consequently small. With increase of the voltage there is an increase of speed of the ions and a smaller number recombine. The current consequently increases, and will reach a maximum value when the electric field is sufficiently strong to remove all the ions before appreciable recombination has occurred. The value of the current will then remain constant even though the voltage is largely increased.
This maximum current will be called the "saturation" current, and the value of the potential difference required to give this maximum current, the "saturation P.D."[1]
The general shape of the current-voltage curve is shown in Fig. 2, where the ordinates represent current and the abscissae volts.
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Fig. 2.
- ↑ This nomenclature has arisen from the similarity of the shape of the current-voltage curves to the magnetization curves for iron. Since, on the ionization theory, the maximum current is a result of the removal of all the ions from the gas, before recombination occurs, the terms are not very suitable. They have however now come into general use and will be retained throughout this work.
