Peculiarities of grid control over the current in a discharge with a cathode spot on the cesium liquid-metal cathode.

We report on the results of successful implementation of full grid control in a cesium discharge with a cathode spot. The discharge is quenched by a negative grid pulse for a discharge current density up to 75 A/cm in the grid plane for voltage switching up to 100 V in the pressure range 0.5-1.5 Pa for a voltage drop of 5-6 V in the discharge. It is shown that quenching is the break-off type. The discovered effect of 'evacuation' of the heavy component (ions) from the grid-anode gap to the cathode region leads to an unusually long (hundreds of microseconds) time of stabilization of the steady state in the discharge under the experimental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]