Applying a strong magnetic field to argon, an abrupt breakdown of gas was introduced to produce a shock wave in a long cylindrical tube. The propagation and reflection. of shock front in the tube were observed by a streak camera and Faraday cell. From the velocity of these fronts, ion temperatures were estimated by the shock equations considering the ionization.
The electron temperatures were measured by the method of electric double probes. The transient probe signals indicate the multi-reflection mechanism of interaction between shocks and mass flows.
The relaxation between ion and electron temperatures is fairly in accord with the theory of distant encounter scheme.