Breakdown and discharge regimes in standard and micrometer size dc discharges

Abstract

In this paper, an overview of our recent experimental studies of the breakdown and operation of non-equilibrium discharges in centimetre and micrometer size geometries is presented. In the centimetre size geometries, we focused on elementary processes and phenomenology in gases used for some of the currently most attractive applications of low temperature plasmas - fluorocarbon gases (CF4, CHClF2) and water vapour. Measurements were performed at electrode separation d = 1.1 cm, in a pressure range from 0.1 to 5 Torr. In the case of micro-discharges, the emphasis was on testing the validity of standard scaling laws and proper determination of scaling parameters pd and j/p2. This was done at electrode gaps of 200 and 500 μm and pressures of 50 and 20 Torr in argon. The investigation is based on measurements of breakdown potentials (Paschen curves) and Volt-Ampere characteristics, supported by simultaneous ICCD imaging of the discharges.