A model of the cathode layer of a glow gas discharge with a thin dielectric film on a fraction of the cathode’s working surface is formulated. It is shown that a glow discharge most rapidly transits to an arc discharge, accompanied by a significant increase in discharge current density and a decrease in cathode voltage drop, if the film occupies approximately half of the cathode surface.
Бондаренко et al. (Wed,) studied this question.