Modeling of argon direct current glow discharges and comparison with experiment: how good is the agreement?

Abstract

A set of three-dimensional models was developed for the different plasma species in a glow discharge, and these models were combined, to obtain an overall picture of a direct current glow discharge in argon. Typical results of these models include the electrical current flowing through the discharge as a function of pressure and voltage, the density profiles and flux energy distributions of the plasma species, the potential and electric field distributions in the plasma, information on collision processes, the crater profiles due to sputtering at the cathode and optical emission spectra due to radiative decay of excited atoms. The calculated data were compared with experimental observations to check the validity of the models, and the reliability of both modeling and experimental results is discussed.