When a helium atom is in a field between cathode and anode at a about 30 volt Question will the helium atom aquire a nefative charge ? and then release the quired electron at the anode ?

You can buy 12 volt neon lamps. The neon is at low pressure.

 

I would expect that it is much harder to ripe an electron out of an orbital, such that it would require a higher voltage, less pressure, or smaller distance between electrodes.

 

You can purchase helium lamps requiring perhaps 15 thousand volts with a tube length maybe 15 inches. 15K/15 gives you 1000 volts per inch of electric field strength. It's not the applied voltage that matters, but the voltage per inch, or voltage per centimeter.

 

That means you need an anode-cathode gap of less than .033 inches. (Hmm. That seems a little large to me.)

 

But it gets a little more complicated than what I've written:

 

There is an ignition voltage to get the arc started, but a significantly lower sustaining voltage. Once you get it kick started it takes less voltage to keep the arc going.

 

By the way, with a missing electron, the helium would acquire a positive charge.

Edited December 2, 201312 yr by decraig

By the way the anode cahode gap is about 0.5 mm the gap is filled with Helium , Cathode is graphite and the anode is graphite and in the process there is a deposition of carbonateous material at the cathode . In a way it becomes something like sputtering.

You can buy 12 volt neon lamps.

 

Where?

Where?

Good catch. These things have nearly gone obsolete for a long time now. I should have said, 120 VAC.

Edited December 3, 201312 yr by decraig

I thought that the firing voltage with even a small neon lamp was 70.7V.......you can buy 12V neon lamps for the car, but they have a small step-up power supply included in the lamp assembly.....edd