Spectrum of the Runaway Electron Beam Generated During a Nanosecond Discharge in Air at Atmospheric Pressure

The spectrum of supershort avalanche runaway electron beam generated in air at atmospheric pressure is experimentally investigated using a time-of-flight spectrometer and attenuation curves. It is shown that the maximum of the electron energy distribution for the main (second) group of electrons is less than the energy eU_m, where U_m is the maximal voltage across the gap, and the difference between these energies depends on the design of the cathode and the interelectrode gap in a gas diode. It is confirmed that there are three groups of electrons with different energies in the runaway electron beam spectrum.