Measurement of Electrophysical Characteristics of Air Ionized by a γ-Pulse

The processes that govern the dynamics of radiation-induced electrical conductivity in the air are considered. The influence of near-electrode layers of space charge on the accuracy of measuring the electric field strength in the ionization chamber is assessed. It has been shown that the measurement error using this method does not exceed 12%. The electrophysical characteristics of dry and humid air are studied using a three-electrode ionization chamber under the influence of hard gamma radiation with quantum energy 1.5 MeV in a wide range of pressures, air humidity, applied electric field strength, and absorbed radiation dose. The article presents the results of studying the radiation-induced electrical conductivity, electron attachment frequency, their drift velocity in dry and humid air with the ratio of the electric field strength to the concentration of molecules forming the air environment E/N from 0.3 to 75 Td.