AVS 50th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS2-WeA

Paper PS2-WeA5
A Simulation Study of the Role of Surface Phenomena in Dielectric-barrier Atmospheric-pressure Glow Discharges

Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 3:20 pm, Room 315

Session: Atmospheric Plasmas & Micro Discharges
Presenter: X. Yuan, The University of Texas at Austin
Authors: X. Yuan, The University of Texas at Austin
L.L. Raja, The University of Texas at Austin
Correspondent: Click to Email
Atmospheric-pressure glow (APG) discharges controlled by dielectric barriers can be used for a variety of new applications such as etching and deposition of thin films, surface modification, and plasma sterilization, without need for vacuum chambers. Dielectric-barrier controlled APG discharges exhibit a variety of interesting phenomena that are determined by plasma dynamics, volumetric chemistry, and dielectric surface effects. A clear understanding of these interactions is often difficult to unravel through purely experimental means and first principles simulation approaches can play an important role. In this talk, we will present detailed one-dimensional simulation results for a dielectric-barrier APG discharges in high-purity helium. Simulation results will be used to explain several experimentally observed dielectric-barrier APG characteristics such as large scatter in peak current values, asymmetry in current pulses, and parametric dependence of peak current pulse values on different discharge operating conditions. Our modeling results present convincing evidence that run-to-run variations in surface conditions (such as secondary electron emission coefficients) control the experimental observations such as scattered and asymmetric current pulses.