Measurement of Photoionization Rates in Air

The ionization of gas molecules from the absorption of photons produced in different parts of a discharge is an important process in the development of streamers. Photoionization rates are essential in the propagation of streamers and are therefore important in simulations of computational codes. Although streamers are widely used in computational codes, there is a limited data set on the experiments measuring photoionization rates in gases. Usually, the photoionization rate data used in computational codes comes from a single source and the validity of this data combined with the photoionization model has been questionable. It is postulated there is a probable uncertainty in photoionization rates as high as a factor of four. To improve the current state of the art simulations, an experimental setup capable of measuring photoionization produced from a gas discharge provides new photoionization data