Investigation of a -discharge plasma under an increased pressure of Ar and in narrow tubes

Abstract

The electrokinetic characteristics (the electron energy distribution function, the strength of the longitudinal electric field and the concentration and average energy of electrons) are measured and calculated in a -discharge plasma under a high pressure of argon (up to 30 Torr) and in narrow tubes (the tube radius is less than 1.0 cm). A simple method of treating the second derivative of the probe current with respect to the probe potential is proposed for a straightforward way to obtain the electron energy distribution function under a high pressure of a gas. It is shown that the main assumptions on which modelling of the plasma of mercury luminescent lamps is based are also valid for the plasma in question. This leads to the existence of special similarity laws and gives a new possibility for diagnostics based on the similarity properties of the plasma. The approach proposed in the work can be easily extended to the mixtures of mercury vapour and other rare gases.

Spatial variations of non-uniform argon glow discharge

“…It has been seen that as the radius of the tube decreases with constant pressure from R 1 = 2.1 cm to R 2 = 1.4 cm, the electron temperature (density) decreases (increases), respectively. This can be explained as follows: The decrease of the discharge tube radius gives rise to the growth of the energy loss and de-excitation of excited argon atoms on tube walls [4,18].…”

Studies of electron energy distribution in plasma produced by a resonant laser pulse

“…Another approach implies the use of corrections to the second derivative, which depends on the ψ 0 parameter [31,32]. In many cases one can find the electron distribution without any serious disadvantages, and one can avoid difficulties caused by the procedure of regularization.…”