Characteristics of capacitively coupled RF helium/neon discharges in a hollow fiber

Abstract

Capacitively coupled radio-frequency microplasmas are produced in hollow fibers with an inner diameter of hundreds of micrometers powered by an 80-MHz power supply. Considering the narrow space of the hollow core, optical emission spectrometry is used to obtain the spatially resolved characteristics of the microplasmas. The rotational temperature, excitation temperature, and electron density of microplasmas are determined based on the second positive band of nitrogen, the atomic spectra of bulk neutral particles of plasmas, and the Hβ line of the hydrogen Balmer series, respectively. In our experiments, the rotational temperature, excitation temperature, and electron density of typical inert gases helium and neon are in the ranges of 300–500 K, 7000–9500 K, and 1013 cm−3, respectively. The results obtained with different external parameters of power and pressure show that the light emission intensity increases with power and pressure. The distributions of the rotational temperature, excitation temperature, and electron density of the microplasmas are almost constant over the gap between the electrodes. These distributions are mostly insensitive to the change of power and pressure in single-component plasmas. The characteristics of mixed plasmas are also investigated. The plasma with a larger helium content possesses higher excitation temperature and lower rotational temperature and electron density than those of the plasma with a lower helium content.