Study of a neon dc column plasma by a hybrid method

Abstract

The column plasma of a dc glow discharge in neon is comprehensively studied bya new self-consistent hybrid method. The method is based on the solution of the steady-state fluid equations of charge carriers and the Poisson equationusing electron transport coefficients and ionization frequencies which arise from a space-dependent kinetic treatment of the electron component. The column description comprises, in addition, a space-dependenttreatment of the excited particles in the plasma, the treatment of the plasma-wall interaction processes of the charge carriers and the determination of the electric field.The hybrid method provides a very efficient self-consistentcolumn description although it avoids rough approximations often applied in fluid methods.Results of the method for a neon column plasma are compared with those ofprobe measurements and spectroscopic studies.The results confirm the importance of the ionization of excited neon atomsfor the charge carrier production and emphasize the necessity ofthe detailed description of the excited states included in the column model.