Topography of origination of the explosive-decomposition reaction in silver azide by an electron-accelerator pulse

Pre-explosion luminescence in silver azide whiskers initiated by an electron-accelerator pulse is found to originate at isolated points (“spots”). The uniformity of the electron beam used to initiate the reaction proves that the effect observed is not attributed to specific features of absorption of initiation-pulse energy at these spots. The phenomenon is assumed to have a stochastic nature.