Second Order Fluid Glow Discharge Model Sustained by Different Source Terms

Abstract

Behavior of charged particles in a DC low pressure glow discharge is studied. The electric properties of the glow discharge in argon, maintained by a constant source term with uni- form electron and ion generation, between two plane electrodes or by secondary electron emission at the cathode, are determined. A °uid model is used to solve self-consistently the ¯rst three moments of the Boltzmann equation coupled with the Poisson equation. The stationary spatial distribution of the electron and ion densities, the electric potential, the electric ¯eld, and the electron energy, in a two-dimensional (2D) con¯guration, are presented.