AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS2-WeA

Invited Paper PS2-WeA3
Numerical and Experimental Study of Microhollow Cathode Sustained Discharges in Ar and O2 at Relative High Pressure

Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 2:40 pm, Room 2011

Session: Atmospheric and Microplasmas
Presenter: E. Muñoz-Serrano, CPAT - CNRS, France
Authors: E. Muñoz-Serrano, CPAT - CNRS, France
T. Callegari, CPAT - CNRS, France
G. Hagelaar, CPAT - CNRS, France
L. Pitchford, CPAT - CNRS, France
J.P. Boeuf, CPAT - CNRS, France
Correspondent: Click to Email
Many research groups around the world are now actively investigating ways of generating and maintaining a stable, non-thermal, high-pressure plasma in electric discharges. Since the initial work of Schoenbach and his colleagues, it is now well established that such plasmas can be generated and maintained in discharges in small - 100's of micron-sized - geometries. The simplest such system consists of a cathode/dielectric/anode sandwich through which a cylindrical hole of some 200 microns is drilled. This is refered to as a MicroHollow Cathode Discharges or MHCD. Our work is focused on the study of the parameters that characterize the behaviour of a Micro Cathode Sustained (MCS) discharge@Footnote 1@ in which a third planar electrode (anode A2) is placed parallel at some distance (1 cm) from the anode (A1) of the MHCD sandwich. Thus, the MHCD is used as an electron source to form a higher plasma volume between the MHCD and the anode A2. Our experimental results to date suggest that the plasma in the MCS region can be treated like a positive column where the plasma is sustained by a local balance of charged particle losses and production processes. Our 2D model of the radially expanding positive column plasma in the MCS region is qualitatively consistent with experimental results in argon and in oxygen discharges. Results from these experimental and numerical results will be presented to illustrate the plasma properties that can be achieved in microdischarges in this MCS configuration. We would like to acknowledge the contribution of collaborative the experiments of V Puech (LPGP, Orsay) and A Rousseau (LPTP, Palaiseau) conducted in microcell geometries.@FootnoteText@@footnote 1@R.H. Stark and K.H. Schoenbach, J. Appl. Phys. 85 (1999) 2075.