Investigation on the similarity law of low-pressure glow discharges based on the light intensity distributions in geometrically similar gaps
Abstract
Experimental investigation of the light intensity distributions of a low-pressure glow discharge is carried out in several pairs of geometrically similar plane-parallel gaps, of which the aspect ratios and the products of the linear dimension and the gas pressure are the same. The discharge images are captured using a Charge Coupled Device camera, from which the corresponding axial light intensity distributions are presented. Based on the obtained light intensity distributions, the thicknesses of cathode fall layers were identified by measuring the distance between the peak glow position and the cathode boundary. The influence of the discharge current on the light intensity distributions on the geometrically similar gaps is also investigated. It was found that, for discharges in each pair of geometrically similar gaps, the reduced cathode fall thicknesses are observed to be identical when the discharge currents are the same. The similarity relation of the cathode fall thickness is validated for low-pressure glow discharges in gaps for different aspect ratios.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4997425
Entities
People
- Andrew J. Christlieb
- John Verboncoeur
- Shuo Yang
- Xiaobing Zou
- Xinxin Wang
- Yangyang Fu
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Michigan State University
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Tsinghua University
- United States Department of Energy