J. Dosse und G. Mierdel. Der elektrische Strom im Hochvakuum und in Gasen. 2-te Auflage. 1945.

I. Dosse and G. Mierdel. Electric Current in Vacuum and in Gases. 2nd ed., 1945, 358 pp., 184 figs.

The present book is a textbook on physical electronics for senior students of electrical engineering, and also for engineers wishing to become acquainted with this interesting and important field of modern science and technology. The contents of the book are as follows:

In Chapter I (pp. 1–53) the elements of the structure of the atom and of the solid body are considered, including dielectrics and semiconductors, elements of statistics and its application to gases, as well as phenomena in collisions in the volume and at the walls.

In Chapter II (pp. 54–91) methods are considered for obtaining free charges in the volume and on the surface by impact ionization by electrons and ions, thermal and photoionization, etc., on the one hand, and thermionic, photo-, secondary, etc. emission, on the other.

In Chapter III (pp. 92–102) the pair interaction leading to the formation of negative ions is considered, as well as the recombination of ions in the volume and on the surface.

In Chapter IV (pp. 103–143) the motion of charges in vacuum, in electric and magnetic fields, and in a high-frequency electric field is considered, and, using a number of examples (deflecting and focusing action, determination of the velocity and specific charge, etc.), the special features of this motion are examined.

In Chapter V (pp. 144–180) the motion of charges in a gas is considered, the distribution of velocities, mobility, diffusion, as well as the propagation of electromagnetic oscillations and the natural oscillations in a medium with charges.

Bibliography

In Chap. VI (pp. 181–264) the principal questions connected with electron currents in vacuum in the case of a plane system of electrodes are considered, as are the features of controlling them by means of grids, questions of electron optics, and, finally, various types of oscillations of electrons in high-frequency devices.

In Chap. VII (pp. 265–329) questions of gas discharge are considered: general properties, plasma of various types and probe measurements in it, the principal types of discharges and nonstationary phenomena.

Finally, in Chap. VIII (pp. 330–345) questions of ignition of discharges of various types are considered.

As is evident from the exposition, the present book covers a very wide range of questions, including those that have developed only very recently (see, for example, Chap. VI). The presentation of the material corresponds, in general, to the level of preparation of senior university students, for whom a textbook of this type is very useful. The book orients the reader in that field of modern electronics which is connected with the physics of electron and ion devices, touching only very slightly on a new field—nuclear electronics, by which one now understands the production, focusing, acceleration, localization, and analysis of fast and ultrafast electron and ion beams. Illumination of this field, now a very important one, can be carried out both within the framework of a general course in electronics, with which it has very many points of contact, and by issuing a separate course. The most successful parts of the present book are Chapters IV, VI, and VII; here, in particular, one may note the exposition of questions of electron optics, the motion of electrons in high-frequency fields, the action of grids in electron tubes, discharge plasma, etc. The presentation of electron emission of various types, elementary processes of gas discharge, etc., is somewhat less satisfactory. Although the authors point out that questions of the technical applications of electronics should be considered separately, they nevertheless did not succeed, naturally, in avoiding this in the present book, where this exposition has, however, a somewhat accidental character. A very serious defect of the present book is the absence in it of even the most modest index of the basic original literature; one can in no way agree with the authors, who motivate this by saying that the present book is a textbook. The value of a book of this type consists, in particular, in the fact that its reader should be given the possibility of proceeding directly to independent work, which cannot be done when one has only a list of nine other monographs, to which the authors of the book under review limited themselves.

The book lacks even a small number of problems, very useful in textbooks of this type, etc. The introduction of these, as well as of a number of other corrections and additions, could make the present book a very useful teaching aid serving as a general introduction to modern physical electronics.

N. D. Morgulis