Longitudinal combined discharge extinction in low pressure nitrogen

Abstract

This 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.