Two-region computational model for dc glow discharge plasma

Journal Article · Mon Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1991 · IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/27.106839· OSTI ID:5807215

Pirooz, S ^[1]; Ramachandran, P A ^[2]; Abraham-Sshrauner, B ^[3]

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1. MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., St. Peters, MO (US)
2. Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
3. Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering

a two-region model has been developed which simplifies the computations for a dc glow discharge plasma between two parallel plates. The glow discharge is divided into a cathode sheath and a bulk plasma. An anode sheath is ignored in the computations. The bulk plasma is assumed to be quasi-neutral and supports ambipolar diffusion. To link the sheath and bulk regions, the classical ambipolar analysis is modified to include a net total current in the plasma. In the sheath region the plasma variables are determined by numerical integration of an initial-value problem by Gear's routine. The integration starts from the cathode with the total current fixed and with the cathode electric field iterated until a complete solution is found. The sheath-bulk boundary occurs at the distance from the cathode where the electron and ion densities are nearly equal; matching conditions on the plasma variables are imposed here. In this paper illustrative results are presented for some chosen conditions and the effect of operating variables on the pertinent plasma properties is qualitatively discussed.

• OSTI ID: 5807215
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States) Vol. 19:2; ISSN ITPSB; ISSN 0093-3813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700330* -- Plasma Kinetics
Transport
& Impurities-- (1992-)
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200 -- Mathematics & Computers
AMBIPOLAR DIFFUSION
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CATHODES
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRODES
ELECTRON DENSITY
GLOW DISCHARGES
ION DENSITY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PLASMA
PLASMA SHEATH
PLATES