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In this work, nanosecond two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) is used to probe the absolute density of nitrogen atoms in a plasma generated using a micro-hollow cathode discharge (MHCD). The MHCD is operated in the normal regime, and the plasma is ignited in an Ar/N2 gas mixture. First, we study a MHCD configuration having the same pressure (50 mbar) on both sides of the electrodes. A good agreement is found between the density of N atoms measured using TALIF in this work and previous measurements using vacuum ultraviolet Fourier transform absorption spectroscopy. Then, we introduce a pressure differential between the two electrodes of the MHCD, creating a plasma jet. The influence of the discharge current, the percentage of N2 in the gas mixture, and pressures on both sides of the MHCD is studied. The current has a small impact on the N-atom density. Furthermore, an optimal N-atom density is found at around 95% of N2 in the discharge. Finally, we demonstrate that the pressure has a different impact depending on the side of the MHCD: the density of N atoms is much more sensitive to the change of the pressure in the low-pressure side when compared to the pressure change in the high-pressure side. This could be due to several competing phenomena: gas residence time in the cathodic region, recirculation, or recombination of the N atoms at the wall. This study contributes to the optimization of MHCD as an efficient N-atom source for material deposition applications.

The spatio-temporal distribution of O and H radicals in a 90 ns pulsed discharge, generated in a pin-pin geometry with a 2.2 mm gap, in He + H2O (0.1 and 0.25%), is studied both experimentally and by 1D fluid modelling. The density of O and H radicals as well as the effective lifetimes of their excited states are measured using picosecond resolution Two-Photon Absorption Laser Induced Fluorescence (ps-TALIF). Good agreement between experiments and modelling is obtained for the species densities. The density of O and H is found to be homogenous along the discharge axis. Even though the high voltage pulse is 90 ns long, the density of O peaks only about 1 μs after the end of the current pulse, reaching 2x1016cm-3 at 0.1% H2O. It then remains nearly constant over 10 μs before decaying. Modelling indicates that the electron temperature (Te) in the centre of the vessel geometry ranges from 6 to 4 eV during the peak of discharge current, and after 90 ns, drops below 0.5 eV in about 50 ns. Consequently, during the discharge (<100 ns), O is predominantly produced by direct dissociation of O2 by electron impact, and in the early afterglow (from 100ns to 1 μs) O is produced by dissociative recombination of O2 +. The main loss mechanism of O is initially electron impact ionisation and once Te has dropped, it becomes mainly Penning ionisation with He2* and He* as well as 3-body recombination with O+ and He. On time scales of 100-200 μs, O is mainly lost by radial diffusion. The production of H shows a similar behaviour, reaching 0.45x1016 cm-3 at 1 μs, due to direct dissociation of H2O by electron impact (<100ns) followed by electron-ion recombination processes (from 200 ns to 1.5 us). H is dominantly lost through Penning ionisation with He* and He2* and by electron impact ionisation, and by charge exchange with O+. Increasing concentrations of water vapour, from 0.1 to 0.25%, have little effect on the nature of the processes of H formation but trigger a stronger initial production of O, which is not currently reproduced satisfactorily by the modelling. What emerges from this study is that the built up of O and H densities in pulsed discharges continues after electron-impact dissociation processes with additional afterglow processes, not least through the dissociative recombination of O2 + and H2 +.