Towards a reduced chemistry module of a HeArCu hollow cathode discharge

D Mihailova (1) , J van Dijk (1) , M Grozeva (2) , G Degrez (3) , a M van Der Mullen (1)

1 Department of Applied Physics [Eindhoven]
2 ISSP - Institut of the Solid State Physics
3 ULB - Département d'Informatique [Bruxelles]

This study is aimed to find a reduced chemistry module for hollow cathode discharge excited in a He-Ar-Cu mixture. This enables to construct lean and realible models that can be used as a part of the design tool of hollow cathode discharges (HCDs). To this end estimative calculations and numerical simulations are performed at optimal conditions for lasing. An analysis of the species behaviour and reactions is made and as a result the model is simplified by means of reducing the number of species and reactions. The consequences of these reductions is justified by comparing the results of the simplified models with those of a more complete one. This study delivers a model that is chemical lean and thus, much less time consuming. It can be used in optimization studies to find the optimum in the plasma control parameter-set of HCDs. The technique developed in this study for HCDs can be applied to glow discharges in general.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

D Mihailova, J van Dijk, M Grozeva, G Degrez, a M van Der Mullen. Towards a reduced chemistry module of a HeArCu hollow cathode discharge. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2011, 44 (19), pp.194001. ⟨10.1088/0022-3727/44/19/194001⟩. ⟨hal-00615134⟩