Name Frans Penning Role Physicist | Fields Physics | |
Books Electrical Discharges in Gases | ||
Frans Michel Penning (12 September 1894 – 6 December 1953) was a Dutch experimental physicist. He received his PhD from the University of Leiden in 1923, and studied low pressure gas discharges at the Philips Laboratory in Eindhoven, developing new electron tubes during World War II.
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Many detailed observations of gas ionization were done with colleagues, finding notable results for helium and magnetic fields. He made precise measurements of Townsend coefficients and cathode voltage fall.
Penning trap
The Penning trap stores charged particles by magnetic and electric fields. It was named after Penning by Hans Georg Dehmelt who built the first trap. Dehmelt got inspiration from the vacuum gauge built by Penning where a current through a discharge tube in a magnetic field is proportional to the pressure. Penning traps are currently used for magnetic measurements and are an active research topic.
Penning ionization
Penning ionization is a form of chemi-ionization, an ionization process involving reactions between neutral atoms or molecules. Penning first reported the effect it in 1927. The Penning effect is used in gas-discharge neon lamps and fluorescent lamps, where the lamp is filled with a Penning mixture to improve the electrical characteristics.
Penning gauge
Penning invented a type of cold cathode vacuum gauge known as the Penning gauge, which Phillips commercialized.