Kinetics of charged particles in a high-voltage gas discharge in a nonuniform electrostatic field

Abstract

A high-voltage gas discharge is of interest as a possible means of generating directed flows of low-temperature plasma in the off-electrode space distinguished by its original features [1–4]. We propose a model for calculating the trajectories of charges particles in a high-voltage gas discharge in nitrogen at a pressure of 0.15 Torr existing in a nonuniform electrostatic field and the strength of this field. Based on the results of our calculations, we supplement and refine the extensive experimental data concerning the investigation of such a discharge published in [1, 2, 5–8]; good agreement between the theory and experiment has been achieved. The discharge burning is initiated and maintained through bulk electron-impact ionization and ion–electron emission. We have determined the sizes of the cathode surface regions responsible for these processes, including the sizes of the axial zone involved in the discharge generation. The main effect determining the kinetics of charged particles consists in a sharp decrease in the strength of the field under consideration outside the interelectrode space, which allows a free motion of charges with specific energies and trajectories to be generated in it. The simulation results confirm that complex electrode systems that allow directed plasma flows to be generated at a discharge current of hundreds or thousands of milliamperes and a voltage on the electrodes of 0.3–1 kV can be implemented in practice [3, 9, 10].