Time distribution of the nucleation events

In the treatment above, a random, Poissonian distribution of the nucleation events in the time domain has been assumed. This assumption can be verified by the following simple experiment  

At potentials close to the critical overvoltage. Fig. 5.2, the probability for spontaneous nucleation rises rapidly. If a quasi-perfect face is polarized at a potential in vicinity of the critical overvoltage, single spikes of the current can be observed occurring sporadically in time. Fig. 5.9 shows a part of a current-time record at a polarization of rj = - 6.0 mV [5.20]. The whole record is about 1.4 hours long and contains more than 400 nucleation events. The average frequency of nucleation is 8.64 X 10 nuclei s  

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