Characteristics of atmospheric-pressure, radio-frequency glow discharges operated with argon added ethanol

Journal Article · Fri Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2007 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2748430· OSTI ID:20979438

Wenting, Sun; Guo, Li; Heping, Li; Chengyu, Bao; Huabo, Wang; Shi, Zeng; Xing, Gao; Huiying, Luo ^[1]

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1. Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

Rf, atmospheric-pressure glow discharge (APGD) plasmas with bare metal electrodes have promising prospects in the fields of plasma-aided etching, thin film deposition, disinfection and sterilization, etc. In this paper, the discharge characteristics are presented for the rf APGD plasmas generated with pure argon or argon-ethanol mixture as the plasma-forming gas and using water-cooled, bare copper electrodes. The experimental results show that the breakdown voltage can be reduced significantly when a small amount of ethanol is added into argon, probably due to the fact that the Penning ionization process is involved, and a pure {alpha}-mode discharge can be produced more easily with the help of ethanol. The uniformity of the rf APGDs of pure argon or argon-ethanol mixtures using bare metallic electrodes is identified with the aid of the intensified charge coupled device images.

• OSTI ID: 20979438
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 101; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ARGON
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
BREAKDOWN
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
COPPER
DEPOSITION
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRODES
ETCHING
ETHANOL
GLOW DISCHARGES
HIGH-FREQUENCY DISCHARGES
IONIZATION
MIXTURES
PLASMA
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
STERILIZATION
THIN FILMS
WATER