Vacuum ultraviolet emissions from a cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge in neon and neon-hydrogen mixtures

The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) emissions from a cylindrical dielectric barrier discharge (C-DBD) excited by radio frequency (rf) power at 13.56 MHz in both pure Ne and in a mixture of Ne and H, were analyzed. Measurements of the relative emission intensity of the Ne resonance lines and the Ne-2*, excimer continua in pure neon were studied as a function of pressure, rf power, and gas flow rate. In Ne-H, mixtures. we studied the emission of the H Lyman-alpha line as a function of H, concentration, pressure, gas flow rate, and rf power. The observed dependence of the VUV emissions on the gas pressure, net rf power, gas flow rate and, in the case of the spectra of the Ne-H-2 plasma, the H-2 concentration is explained on the basis of a detailed microscopic analysis of the excimer formation and destruction processes and the competition between the vibrational relaxation processes. quenching processes, and the radiative decay of two excimer states involved. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.