Statistics of electron multiplication for the case of a positive-ion secondary mechanism
C J Evans · Journal of Physics D Applied Physics · 1988
A new statistical treatment, previously applied by the author for the case of an undelayed photon secondary process, is now applied to the case of a uniform-field electrical discharge in which the secondary emission is due to the impact of positive ions no the cathode. An integral equation is derived for the probability of finding any number of electrons in the discharge at any time, not necessarily multiples of some discrete generation period. This is solved numerically for some particular cases. Results are also given for the mean and standard deviation of the current distribution at any time.