Non-local effects in a stratified glow discharge with dust particles

Abstract

The work is aimed at describing non-local effects in the positive column of a low-pressure stratified dc glow discharge in argon with dust particles in a vertical cylindrical discharge tube. Numerical calculations of plasma parameters in the axis of the discharge tube were performed with the help of a hybrid model based on the solution of a non-local Boltzmann equation for electron energy distribution function (EEDF). Axial distributions of optical emission from striations with dust particles were measured experimentally. Negatively charged dust particles in a low-pressure stratified gas discharge should levitate at the anode-side branch of an electric field distribution above its maximum. At the same time the experiments showed that the dust particles levitate at the cathode side of a stratum. This paradox is explained by the fact that in a low-pressure striated discharge the optical emission distribution is displaced relative to the electric field distribution that was shown both by numerical simulations and experimental measurements.