Introduction to the Kinetics of Glow Discharges

Chengxun Yuan received his PhD degree in physics from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2011. He is now the Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. His research interests include basic plasma physics, dusty plasma physics and the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with plasma. He has more than 80 publications in the plasma field. Anatoly A. Kudryavtsev received the MS and PhD degrees in physics from the Leningrad State University, Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia), in 1976 and 1983, respectively. Since 1982, he has been with the St Petersburg State University, where now he is an Associate Professor in the Optics Department, and the Chair Professor at the Department of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology. He is an expert in gas discharge physics and the kinetic theory of plasma physics, and the author of over 150 journal articles and numerous conference presentations. Vladimir Demidov received his PhD degree from Leningrad State University (now St. Petersburg State University), Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia), in 1981. He has been with West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV, USA) since 2003. He is now a Research Professor at the Department of Physics and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Mathematics. His primary interests are basic plasma physics, plasma diagnostics, and atomic and molecular physics. He has more than 150 publications and is the author of a monograph on probe methods of plasma diagnostics.

Preface
Symbols and abbreviations
Author biographies
1. Introduction
2. Ionization in the electric field and the first Townsend coefficient
3. Microwave breakdown
4. Breakdown and self-sustained discharge ignition in a uniform dc field: the Paschen curves
5. The general structure of a discharge between cold electrodes
6. The Townsend and subnormal modes
7. The 'short' (without positive column) glow discharge
8. Positive column of dc glow