Nonlocal phenomena in the positive column of a glow discharge in molecular gases

The influence of nonlocality of the electron energy distribution function on the parameters of a positive column of a molecular gas discharge at a mean pressure from the range 1 ≤ pR ≤ 10 cm Torr is studied. Under these conditions, the electron energy relaxation length is small compared with the characteristic size of the plasma region; that is, calculation can be carried out in the local approximation. For fast electrons at the periphery of the discharge, where the ambipolar field exceeds the longitudinal one, the local approximation may introduce significant errors into the basic parameters of the positive column. The nonlocality of the electron energy distribution function is found to increase excitation constants from the center of the discharge to its periphery.     

Nonlocal phenomena in the positive column of a medium-pressure glow discharge

Commercial CFDRC software () is used to self-consistently simulate the plasma of the positive column (PC) of a medium-pressure dc discharge in argon. The software allows simulations in an arbitrary 3D geometry by using Poisson’s equation for the electric potential and fluid equations for the heavy components and by solving a nonlocal kinetic equation for electrons. It is shown that, in calculating the electron distribution function, the local approximation is almost always inapplicable not only at relatively low pressures (pR<1 cm Torr), but also at relatively high pressures (pR<10 cm Torr), i.e., under the real conditions of a diffuse PC usually met in practice. The use of the local approximation in solving the kinetic equation for electrons leads to significant errors in determining the main parameters of the PC. A paradoxical effect has been revealed: the peaks of the profiles of the excitation rates shift from the discharge axis toward the periphery as the pressure increases from low to medium values (1 cm Torr<pR<10 cm Torr). It is shown that the effect is related to the nonlocal character of the electron distribution function.     

Analysis of the Kinetic Properties and the Energy Budget of the Electrons in the Ar?Hg Glow Discharge Plasma at Varying Partial Pressures and Discharge Currents

By simultaneously solving the Boltzmann equation and the current balance for the electrons the energy distribution function, the electron concentration and resulting macroscopic electron quantities were calculated for the Ar? Hg mixture plasma under conditions typical of fluorescent lamps. Besides the usual external parameters of such diffusion determined discharge plasmas measured values of the electric field strength were employed. The investigations were performed for independent variation of the partial pressures of Ar and Hg as well as of the discharge current in wide ranges of practical interest. The results obtained are discussed and compared with various energy distributions employed up to now and measured values of the electron concentration and temperature as well as with experimental results on the energy budget of this mixture plasma available in the literature.     

Effect of a dust component on the rates of elementary processes in low-temperature plasmas

Elementary processes in dusty, beam-driven plasma discharges are studied experimentally and theoretically for the first time. A theoretical model is constructed for a beam-driven plasma containing macroscopic particles. The effect of macroscopic particles on the electron energy distribution function is estimated assuming a Coulomb field for the particles. The resulting rate of electron-ion recombination on the macroscopic particles is compared with the electron loss constant calculated from the electron energy distribution function with an electron absorption constant in the orbital-motion approximation. This approximation, which is valid in the collisionless case, is found to work satisfactorily beyond its range of applicability. The distributions of the charged particles and electric fields created by macroscopic particles in a helium plasma are determined. The experimental data demonstrate the importance of secondary emission by high-energy electrons. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 2020–2036 (June 1999)     

Numerical Study on Characteristics of Argon Radio-Frequency Glow Discharge with Varying gas Pressure

A one-dimensional fluid simulation on argon rf glow discharge with varying linearly gas pressure from 1 Torr to 100 Tort is performed. The model based on mass conservation equations for electron and ion under diffusion and mobility approximation, and the electron energy conservation equation is solved numerically by finite volume method. The numerical results show that a uniform plasma with high density can be obtained from rf glow discharge with varying gas pressure, and the density of plasma becomes higher as the gas pressure varies from 1 Tort to 100 Tort. It is also shown that in the range of the gas pressure from 1 Tort to 100 Tort with the slower rate of varying gas pressure, higher density of plasma can be obtained.     

Statistical Theory of Two-Sided Multipactor

We develop a statistical theory of secondary-emission discharge (SED) taking the energy distribution of secondary electrons into account. The theory allows one to describe quantitatively the initial stage of development of a two-sided multipactor. For an arbitrary probability density of normal components of the ejection velocity and an arbitrary distance between the walls enclosing the microwave discharge plasma, we construct an analytical solution for the electron distribution function over transit times. The performed analysis is based on the results of a detailed study of conditions under which an electron reaches the opposite side. With allowance for the spread in thermal velocities, we derive a recurrence relation between the electron distribution functions over emission phases and formulate a general integral equation from which the resulting stationary distribution and the threshold of SED onset are determined.     

Spatiotemporal evolution of the distribution function of electrons in sign-changing electric field

A numerical model for solving the Boltzmann unsteady non-local kinetic equation for the distribution function of electrons over energy is constructed. The Boltzmann equation for isotropic part of the distribution function written in natural variables the kinetic energy — the coordinate was solved by the pseudo-unsteady method. The model was applied for describing the spatiotemporal evolution of the distribution function of electrons in a uniform electric field. For a model distribution of the electric field with the “negative” value in the Faraday dark space and the “positive” value in the positive column of the glow discharge, the main macroscopic parameters of electrons are obtained, the diffusion mechanism of the electron current transfer in the negative electric field region is confirmed. The work was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 07-02-00781-a) and by State Contract No. 02.513.11.3242.     

Electron beam formation in a gas diode at high pressures

Electron beam formation in krypton, neon, helium, and nitrogen at elevated pressures are experimentally investigated. It is shown that, when the krypton, neon, and helium pressures are varied, respectively, from 70 to 760 Torr, from 150 to 760 Torr, and from 300 to 4560 Torr, runaway electrons are beamed at the instant the plasma in the discharge gap approaches the anode and the nonlocal criterion for electron runaway is fulfilled. The fast-electron simulation of discharge gap preionization is performed. The simulation data demonstrate that preionization in the discharge gap is provided if the voltage pulse rise time is shorter than a nanosecond under atmospheric pressure.     

Kinetics of the Electron Component in the Turbulent Electron-Beam Discharge Plasma in Diatomic Gases and Comparison of some Macroscopic Properties between the Plasmas of the Beam and the Glow Discharge

The present paper is devoted to the investigation of the kinetics of the electron component in the stationary beam discharge plasma in molecular nitrogen. Using the Boltzmann equation with the inclusion of the elastic and the main inelastic binary collisions and also the Coulomb interaction between the charged particles we have calculated the energy distribution function and some macroscopic quantities of the electrons within a large range of parameters. Using our earlier results for the beam discharge plasma in hydrogen, also the dependence of the macroscopic quantities on the kind of molecular gas is discussed. Finally, the comparison of some macroscopic properties of the beam and the glow discharge plasma was performed under the condition of equal power input per volume unit in both types of plasmas in nitrogen.     

Self-Consistent Model of a Positive Column in an Inert Gas Discharge at Low Pressures and Small Currents

A formalism of the self-consistent solution of the kinetic equation and the field equation is described for the positive plasma column in an inert gas discharge. The model considers the presence of electrons trapped in the potential well transfering the discharge current and of free electrons which reach the walls in a free diffusion regime supporting the required ionization level in the discharge. The calculations have been carried out for neon. In the model application range the comparison is made with experimental data of axial fields, wall potentials, wall currents and in some cases with distribution functions. A good correspondence takes place.     

Electrical characteristics of pulsed glow discharges

The i-v characteristics, energy partitioning, and time evolution of the discharge current and reduced field (E/N) for a nitrogen discharge are simulated using a self-consistent calculation of the electron energy distribution function and the vibrational level populations. The model includes diffusion losses and takes account of the external circuit parameters. The results discussed are for pressures of 1-100 torr, discharge currents in the range of 10^-3-5.0 A, and a reduced field (E/N) in the range of 150-250 Td. For a typical discharge in a tube of 2-cm diam. and a current of a few amperes, the results show that the energy stored in the vibrational manifold saturates a few milliseconds after the initiation of the discharge     

Distribution function of electrons and kinetic coefficients in cesium-argon mixture discharge

The distribution function of electrons in a cesium-argon mixture discharge is found in the present paper by solving Boltzmann's equation. The elastic and inelastic electron-atom collisions and electron-electron collisions are taken into consideration.The influence of the addition of cesium vapours to argon on the quantities characterizing the discharge plasma is explained. From the electron distribution function are calculated: the drift velocity, the mean energy, the ratio of the diffusion and mobility coefficients and the electron energy losses for individual elementary processes as functions of the electric field and the concentration of the neutral gas components.     

Nonlocal electron kinetics in collisional gas discharge plasmas

Nonlocal phenomena in electron kinetics of collisional gas discharge plasmas, their kinetic treatment by a nonlocal approach, and relevant experimental results are reviewed in this paper. Using the traditional two-term approximation for the electron distribution function, a general method to analyze electron kinetics in nonuniform plasmas in DC and RF fields for atomic gases is presented for the nonlocal case, when the electron energy relaxation length exceeds the characteristic spatial scale of bounded plasmas. The nonlocal method, which is based on the great difference between the electron mean free path for the momentum transfer and the electron energy relaxation length, considerably simplifies the solution of the kinetic equation and, in a number of cases, allows one to obtain analytical and semi-analytical solutions. The main simplification is achieved for trapped electrons by averaging the Boltzmann equation over space and fast electron motion. Numerous examples of spatial nonlocality are considered in the positive column and near the electrodes of DC glow discharges, in spatial relaxation of the electron distribution and in striations, and in capacitively and inductively coupled low-pressure RF discharges. The modeling of fast beam-like electrons is based on a continuous-energy-loss approximation with the assumption of forward scattering. Simple analytic expressions for the fast electron spectrum are obtained in cathode regions of DC discharges with planar and hollow cathodes     

Screening of a charged dust particle within a nonlocal charging theory

We study the influence of the nonlocality of the electron energy distribution function on the dust particle charge screening in a two-component plasma of various inert gases and nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. For our analytical and numerical calculations, we have chosen the point sink model in the diffusion-drift approximation, which, in addition to the bulk production and loss of electrons and ions, also includes the heterogeneous processes of their absorption by a dust particle. We have established that the dust particle potential distribution in the problem under consideration is a superposition of three Debye exponentials with three different screening constants. The first constant practically coincides with the inverse Debye length. The second constant is determined by the inverse length travelled by the electrons and ions in the ambipolar diffusion process in the characteristic recombination time. The third constant coincides with the inverse characteristic distance of electron energy transfer through heat conduction in the characteristic time of electron energy establishment in the processes of heating by a beam of fast electrons and energy losses in elastic and inelastic collisions. We compare our numerical calculations of the screening constants with the analytical estimates obtained in the ambipolar diffusion approximation.     

Zweiteilchen-Näherung für ein Fermionensystem mit anziehender Wechselwirkung

For a System of fermions with short range attractive interaction, the sequence of differential equations for the Green's functions is broken off by using the Martin-Schwinger approximation for the six point function. The solution for the ground state of the system yields the momentum distribution and the spectrum of bound pairs. The latter is to be interpreted as the spectrum of collective excitations. The limits of applicability of the approximation are discussed.     

The self-consistent diagram approximation for lattice systems

We apply the self-consistent diagram approximation to calculate equilibrium properties of lattice systems. The free energy of the system is represented by a diagram expansion in Mayer-like functions with averaging over states of a reference system. The latter is defined by one-particle mean potentials, which are calculated using the variational condition formulated. As an example, numerical computations for a two-dimensional lattice gas on a square lattice with attractive interaction between nearest neighbours were carried out. The critical temperature, the phase coexistence curve, the chemical potential and particle and vacancy distribution functions coincide within a few per cent with exact or with Monte Carlo data. Received 18 March 1999 and Received in final form 8 November 1999     

Tonks-Langmuir problem for a bi-Maxwellian plasma

An analytical solution of the Tonks-Langmuir (TL) problem with a bi-Maxwellian electron energy distribution function (EEDF) is obtained for a plasma slab. The solution shows that the ambipolar potential, the plasma density distribution, and the ion flux to the wall are mainly governed by the cold electrons, while the ionization rate and voltage drop across the wall sheath are governed by the hot electrons. The ionization rate by direct electron impact is found to be spatially rather uniform, contrary to the T-L solution where it is proportional to the plasma density distribution. The temperature of hot electrons defined by the ionization balance is found to be close to that of the T-L solution for a mono-Maxwellian EEDF, and is in reasonable agreement with experiments carried out in a low pressure capacitance RF discharge. The energy balance for cold electrons in this discharge shows that their heating by hot electrons via Coulomb interaction is equalized by the cold electrons' escape to the RF electrodes during collapse of the RF sheath     

Gasaufheizung und Energiebilanz einer stationären hochfrequenten Ringentladung in Edelgasen

Gasheating and Energy Balance of a Stationary High Frequency Ring Discharge in Rare Gases The energy balance of an inductively coupled high frequency (28,5 Mhz) discharge in a cylindrical vessel (11,2 cm diam.) in Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe at pressures between 0,1 and 10 Torr and at power inputs between 10 and 1000 W is investigated. The heat power transferred to the neutral gas in the stationary discharge is determined from the time behaviour of the neutral gas pressure in the afterglow period. The power measurements are completed by probe measurements of the electron density and energy distribution function. The measured electron energy distribution functions are maxwellian with a slight deficit electrons in the energy range of inelastic collisions. The electron temperatures show a rather low radial space dependence which can be explained on the basis of the local energy, balance by thermal conduction in the electron gas. The measured gas heating power is within the experimental error (factor 2) in agreement with calculations from the measured electron temperature and density under the assumption that the gas is heated by elastic electron-atom-collision only. A discussion of the energy balance for the total discharge indicates volume recombination losses of the ions which increase the density of the excited atoms and hence the energy losses by stepwise exitations.