Study of Microhollow Cathode Glow Discharge to Improve the Wettability on Surface of Polypropylene Film

Abstract

The ion density distribution has been made and the ionization rate profile has been studied at moderate to atmospheric pressure inside the cavity of microhollow cathode glow discharge to better understand the microplasma behavior, aiming thin film deposition. This methodology sounds as a quite straightforward approach for very investigated, but not well understood, glow discharge at atmospheric pressure. An analytical solution for the continuity equation was proposed, which permits to obtain the ion density distribution and ionization rate profile inside the microplasma. The radial ionization rate has a maximum at the edge of the negative glow where the density of high-energy electrons is higher increasing the number of ionization collisions. The solution of continuity equation shows that microhollow cathode glow discharge has elevated ion density as would be for high pressure discharges. The results were compared with spectroscopic measurements employing argon and Balmer lines. This microplasma was used as glow plasma based aiming the improvement of the wettability on polypropylene film.