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Often you see the phrase associated with high voltage plasma tubes and lasers. I always fail to comprehend the meaning. I guess an increase in the flow of electrons (like a battery) but what about conservation of charge (Kirchhoff's current law), should there not be a deficit elsewhere, is it just that the electrons are accelerated? As you can see i am confused, anyone with any insight into this???

2007-09-17 21:51:06 · 1 answers · asked by Paine 6 in Science & Mathematics Engineering

1 answers

Under some extreme conditions (such as plasma conduction) an increase in the applied votage can actually cause the current to
-decrease-, thus leading to the phenomenon known as negative resistance. You probably aren't old enough to remember vacuum tubes, but 'negative resistance' pentode oscillators were fairly common in the 50's. There is also a device called a 'tunnel diode' or 'Esaki diode' (after Leo Esaki, who invented it) in which increasing the voltage across its terminals will cause a sudden decrease in current. They're frequently used as high-frequency oscillators.

HTH

Doug

2007-09-17 22:16:25 · answer #1 · answered by doug_donaghue 7 · 1 0

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