Suppression of repetitively pulsed electrical discharges by spurious voltage pulses

Repetitive discharges, powered by a train of negative, flat-topped maintenance pulses of amplitude V1, can be suppressed by applying a similarly shaped ‘‘spurious’’ voltage pulse of amplitude V2 at a time interval of tq after each maintenance pulse. Suppression occurs, even with quite small values of V2, a phenomenon that can be explained by taking account of how the spurious pulses affect the electric charges left behind in the discharge tube by each of the driven discharges. The results are relevant to elucidating ‘‘cross talk’’ between discharge tubes in display panels.