AVS 49th International Symposium
    Plasma Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS-TuM

Paper PS-TuM5
Simulation of the Plasma Dynamics and Chemical Phenomena in Dielectric-barrier Controlled Atmospheric-pressure Glow Discharges

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 9:40 am, Room C-103

Session: Atmospheric Pressure and Other Emerging Plasma Applications
Presenter: X. Yuan, University of Texas at Austin
Authors: X. Yuan, University of Texas at Austin
L. Raja, University of Texas at Austin
Correspondent: Click to Email
Large-volume atmospheric-pressure glow (APG) discharges are emerging as an important new class of glow discharges with several potential applications in materials processing. These discharges operate in a previously inaccessible regime of plasma parameter space and have properties that resemble classical low-pressure glow discharges, but at atmospheric or near-atmospheric pressures. Important classes of APG discharges include a high-frequency capacitively coupled configuration with closely spaced parallel electrodes and a low-frequency dielectric-barrier configuration with parallel plates and an intermediate dielectric layer. In this talk, we will present detailed one-dimensional simulation results for a dielectric-barrier APG discharge for varying discharge parameters such as gap length, dielectric capacitance, and frequency. The mechanism of pulsed glow formation and extinction will be discussed for a noble gas (helium) and a molecular gas (nitrogen) APG plasma. Ion impact energy characteristics at the surfaces will be analyzed and its implications for in situ material processing will be reported. Simulation results will be verified with experimental data where available. @FootnoteText@ Supported by NSF-CAREER grant.