Comparison of atmospheric-pressure helium and argon plasmas generated by capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharge

In this paper, the electrical discharge characteristics of plasmas generated in coaxial cylindrical electrodes capacitively powered by a radio-frequency power supply at atmospheric pressure are investigated with respect to helium and argon gases. The electrical discharge parameters, voltage (V), current (I), and power (P), are measured for both helium and argon plasmas, and the electron temperatures and electron densities for them are evaluated by means of the equivalent circuit model and the power balance equation. By comparison of the discharge characteristics of the helium and argon plasmas, it is found that the discrepant macroscopic characteristics of helium and argon plasma, viz., current and voltage characteristics and current and power characteristics, are owed to their own intrinsic microscopic parameters of the helium and argon atoms, such as the first excited energy, the ionization energy, the total cross section, and the atom mass. Furthermore, the influences of the additive gas, oxygen gas, on the electrical discharge characteristics are also investigated in the helium and argon plasmas, which are closely related to the electron temperature of plasmas. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.