This paper contains the complete experimental and analytical picture of gas breakdown in combined electric fields for arbitrary values of rf and dc fields. To obtain it, we continued the study of the discharge ignition modes in nitrogen with simultaneous application of dc and rf electric fields presented in Lisovskiy et al (2008 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 41 125207). To this end, we studied the effect of rf voltage on dc discharge ignition. When we applied an rf voltage exceeding the one corresponding to the minimum breakdown voltage of a self-sustained rf discharge, the curve of dependence of the dc breakdown voltage of a combined discharge on gas pressure was found to consist of two sections. We got the generalized gas breakdown criterion in the combined field valid for arbitrary values of rf and dc electric fields. The calculation results agree with experimental data satisfactorily.
This paper reports the modes of a low pressure discharge in the combined (rf + dc) electric field. We propose to distinguish three modes of a longitudinal combined discharge (rf and dc voltages were applied to the same electrodes): (1) a non-self-sustained rf discharge perturbed by a dc electric field, (2) a combined discharge and (3) a non-self-sustained dc discharge perturbed by an rf electric field. The existence conditions of these modes are determined. The parameter range in which the first mode of the combined discharge may be extinguished via increasing dc voltage is shown to be limited with an rf discharge extinction curve from the low pressure side as well as with a curve of the least rf voltage corresponding to the transition of the combined discharge from the first mode to the second one. The relation between the thicknesses of the 'cathode' and 'anode' near-electrode sheaths is derived analytically for the first mode, which is in good agreement with experimental data.
a b s t r a c tThis paper studies the glow intensity distribution of the discharge plasma against the tube radius and reports the radial profiles of electron temperature and plasma concentration in the rf capacitive discharge registered with a Langmuir probe. An abrupt increase of electron temperature and glow intensity near the tube wall in the weak-current a-mode of the rf capacitive discharge is revealed, the radial distribution of plasma concentration and ion flow to the electrodes possessing a maximum near the radial sheath boundary. In the g-mode of the rf capacitive discharge the electron temperature decrease in the total plasma volume leads to an electric field weakening and the peak of the glow intensity near the tube wall vanishes. The radial sheath thickness in the a-mode of the rf capacitive discharge obtained with 2D simulation experiences pulsations during the rf field period, the changing radial electric field heating electrons and increasing the plasma concentration near the boundary of the radial sheath.
a b s t r a c tThis paper reports the registered extinction curves of the longitudinal combined discharge in nitrogen when rf and dc voltages were applied to the same electrodes. The application of dc voltage is shown first to lead to an increase in the rf discharge extinction voltage; at the same time, the ''cathode'' sheath thickness increases and the number of charged particles in the plasma volume decreases. The discharge extinction curve first shifts to the range of higher rf voltage and gas pressure values, and the region of multi-valued dependence of the rf extinction voltage on gas pressure vanishes. At larger dc voltage values, when the ''cathode'' sheath breakdown occurs, the rf discharge extinction voltage decreases and approaches zero at the dc extinction voltage for the dc self-sustained discharge.
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