Measurements and models of transient and stationary regimes of glow discharge in argon

Abstract

The experimental and theoretical analyses of different regimes of argon DC glow discharge are reported. The experiments were carried out on the argon gas tube with a plane- parallel electrode system made from OFHC (oxygen-free high thermal conductivity) copper. Modelling of the static breakdown voltages was performed by simple fluid model. The applicability of fluid models for modelling of I - U (current-voltage) characteristics at different values of pd (pressure times inter-electrode distance) is tested. The formative time delays are determined from experiment and compared to modeled values obtained by [1D] and [2D] fluid models. The memory curve t̄d (τ) (the dependence of the mean value of breakdown time delay on the relaxation time) is presented and the main processes responsible for the memory effect were determined by applying the analytical and numerical models.