Luminosity on Insulator and Discharge At first we try to explain the luminous phenomenon on the insulator, and then extend it to a hypothesis on the mechanism of the plasma-induced discharge of the negatively biased solar cell. The potential of the insulator, Ks, is determined so as to collect no net current. Origins of the current are primary ion from the plasma and secondary electron from the electrode because the primary electron from the plasma is prevented from the potential barrier [9] in the case of Fig. 11 and from the ion sheath overhanging the insulator. With no source of electron current the insulator is polarized positively at the same potential as the ion beam energy in order to repel the ions. When the ion sheath overhangs the insulator, the electric fields perpendicular and parallel to the insulator look out of the ion sheath and toward the electrode, respectively, as seen in Fig. 16. This is the same as the situation occurring in the snap-over phenomenon [10] at positively biased solar cells. The condition that the mean travelling path of the emitted electron per a hopping, /h, is shorter than the characteristic length of the potential transition on the insulator, Zt, derives the following: where lh = 4E\/Kh>/eE- and Zt= | Vc— V^/E^ The <Kh> means the mean energy of the emitted electron. The right-hand side of Inequality (8) is order of 0.1. When Inequality (8) is satisfied, the secondary electron emitted from the conductor due to a
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