Influence of an acetylene impurity on the properties of a radio-frequency gas discharge in argon

The influence of an acetylene fraction in a mixture with argon on the parameters of a radio-frequency gas discharge has been investigated using the kinetic simulation by the particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision method. Special attention has been focused on analyzing the formation of ions and radicals that are precursors for growth of nanoparticles in the gas discharge volume. It has been shown that the concentrations of electrons, positive ions, and negative ions are nonmonotonic functions of the acetylene amount in the mixture. The presence of negative ions with a concentration comparable to the electron concentration changes the parameters of the radio-frequency gas discharge only insignificantly.