Influence of nitrogen impurities on the formation of active species in Ar-O plasmas

V. Guerra , K. Kutasi , P.A. Sá , M. Lino da Silva

A self-consistent kinetic model was developed in order to study the production of active species in Ar-O surface-wave microwave plasmas with a relatively small N addition. It is shown that the Ar-O-N mixture produces efficiently the same active species as an Ar-O discharge, including oxygen atoms, metastable O(∆) molecules and the VUV emitting Ar(4) states. Furthermore, active N-containing species are additionally produced, in particular N atoms and NO ground-state and excited molecules, which makes the ternary mixture very interesting for numerous plasma applications.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Domaines: Physique [physics]

V. Guerra, K. Kutasi, P.A. Sá, M. Lino da Silva. Influence of nitrogen impurities on the formation of active species in Ar-O plasmas. European Physical Journal: Applied Physics, 2011, 56 (2), pp.24004. ⟨10.1051/epjap/2011110194⟩. ⟨hal-00746213⟩