Cross sections and transport properties of negative ions in rare gases

We have used a combination of a simple semi-analytic theory - Momentum Transfer Theory (MTT) and exact Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to develop momentum transfer cross sections of negative ions in collisions with noble gases based on the available data for reduced mobility at 300K as a function of E/N. At very low energies, we extrapolated obtained cross sections using Langevin's cross section and supplemented it by the total detachment cross section that was used from the threshold around 6 eV up to 100 eV. Other possible reactive processes have not been taken into account. A good agreement for the mean energy and diffusion coefficients is an independent proof of the validity of the cross sections that were derived for the negative ion mobility data

Axial light emission and Ar metastable densities in a parallel plate dc micro discharge in steady state and transient regimes

Axial emission profiles in a parallel plate dc micro discharge (feedgas: argon; discharge gap d=1mm; pressure p=10Torr) were studied by means of time resolved imaging with a fast ICCD camera. Additionally, volt-ampere (V-A) characteristics were recorded and Ar* metastable densities were measured by tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS). Axial emission profiles in the steady state regime are similar to corresponding profiles in standard size discharges (d=1cm, p=1Torr). For some discharge conditions relaxation oscillations are present when the micro discharge switches periodically between low current Townsend-like mode and normal glow. At the same time the axial emission profile shows transient behavior, starting with peak distribution at the anode, which gradually moves towards the cathode during the normal glow. The development of argon metastable densities highly correlates with the oscillating discharge current. Gas temperatures in the low current Townsend-like mode (T= 320-400K) and the high current glow mode (T=469-526K) were determined by the broadening of the recorded spectral profiles as a function of the discharge current.Comment: submitted to Plasma Sources Sci. Techno

Influence of excited molecules on electron swarm transport coefficients and gas discharge kinetics

In this paper we study different effects of excited molecules on swarm parameters, electron energy distribution functions and gas discharge modeling. First we discuss a possible experiment in parahydrogen to resolve the discrepancy in hydrogen vibrational excitation cross section data. Negative differential conductivity (NDC) is a kinetic phenomenon which manifests itself in a particular dependence of the drift velocity on E/N and it is affected by superelastic collisions with excited states. A complete kinetic scheme for argon required to model excited state densities in gas discharges is also described. These results are used to explain experiments in capacitively and inductively coupled RF plasmas used for processing. The paper illustrates the application of atomic and molecular collision data, swarm data and the theoretical techniques in modeling of gas discharges with large abundances of excited molecules. It is pointed out that swarm experiments with excited molecules are lacking and that there is a shortage of reliable data, while the numerical procedures are sufficiently developed to include all the important effects

A Monte Carlo simulation of ion transport at finite temperatures

We have developed a Monte Carlo simulation for ion transport in hot background gases, which is an alternative way of solving the corresponding Boltzmann equation that determines the distribution function of ions. We consider the limit of low ion densities when the distribution function of the background gas remains unchanged due to collision with ions. A special attention has been paid to properly treat the thermal motion of the host gas particles and their influence on ions, which is very important at low electric fields, when the mean ion energy is comparable to the thermal energy of the host gas. We found the conditional probability distribution of gas velocities that correspond to an ion of specific velocity which collides with a gas particle. Also, we have derived exact analytical formulas for piecewise calculation of the collision frequency integrals. We address the cases when the background gas is monocomponent and when it is a mixture of different gases. The developed techniques described here are required for Monte Carlo simulations of ion transport and for hybrid models of non-equilibrium plasmas. The range of energies where it is necessary to apply the technique has been defined. The results we obtained are in excellent agreement with the existing ones obtained by complementary methods. Having verified our algorithm, we were able to produce calculations for Ar$^+$ ions in Ar and propose them as a new benchmark for thermal effects. The developed method is widely applicable for solving the Boltzmann equation that appears in many different contexts in physics.Comment: 14 page

Mobility of positive ions in CF4

Cross-section sets for transport of positive ions in CF4 that fit the available experimental data for mobility are assessed by normalizing the available experimental and theoretical cross-sections within the framework of the swarm method. Transport parameters for positive ions in CF4 in DC fields at a gas temperature of T = 300 K are calculated as a function of the reduced electric fields E/N (N being the gas density) by using Monte Carlo simulation

Mobility of positive ions in CF4

Cross-section sets for transport of positive ions in CF4 that fit the available experimental data for mobility are assessed by normalizing the available experimental and theoretical cross-sections within the framework of the swarm method. Transport parameters for positive ions in CF4 in DC fields at a gas temperature of T = 300 K are calculated as a function of the reduced electric fields E/N (N being the gas density) by using Monte Carlo simulation

Spatiotemporal profile of emission from oscillating dc micro discharges

The axial light distributions in parallel-plate dc microdischarges in argon show similar behavior to large scale discharges. Between the low-current Townsend mode and the high current glow mode exists a large region of currents where different oscillations appear and the dynamic Volt-Ampere characteristic shows hysteresis behavior. During the oscillations the maximum peak intensity moves closer to the cathode, which is characteristic for the abnormal glow regime even though the average current is considerably smaller.Comment: submitted to: IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., Spec. Issue on Images in Plasma Sc

Positron transport: the plasma-gas interface

Motivated by an increasing number of applications, new techniques in the analysis of electron transport have been developed over the past 30 years or so, but similar methods had yet to be applied to positrons. Recently, an in-depth look at positrontransport in pure argon gas has been performed using a recently established comprehensive set of cross sections and well-established Monte Carlo simulations. The key novelty as compared to electron transport is the effect of positronium formation which changes the number of particles and has a strong energy dependence. This coupled with spatial separation by energy of the positron swarm leads to counterintuitive behavior of some of the transport coefficients. Finally new results in how the presence of an applied magnetic field affects the transport coefficients are presented.This work was performed under MNTRS Project No. 141025

A CF4 based positron trap

All buffer-gas positron traps in use today rely on N2 as the primary trapping gas due to its conveniently placed ${{\rm{a}}}^{1}{\rm{\Pi }}$ electronic excitation cross-section. The energy loss per excitation in this process is 8.5 eV, which is sufficient to capture positrons from low-energy moderated beams into a Penning-trap configuration of electric and magnetic fields. However, the energy range over which this cross-section is accessible overlaps with that for positronium (Ps) formation, resulting in inevitable losses and setting an intrinsic upper limit on the overall trapping efficiency of ~25%. In this paper we present a numerical simulation of a device that uses CF4 as the primary trapping gas, exploiting vibrational excitation as the main inelastic capture process. The threshold for such excitations is far below that for Ps formation and hence, in principle, a CF4 trap can be highly efficient; our simulations indicate that it may be possible to achieve trapping efficiencies as high as 90%. We also report the results of an attempt to re-purpose an existing two-stage N2-based buffer-gas positron trap. Operating the device using CF4 proved unsuccessful, which we attribute to back scattering and expansion of the positron beam following interactions with the CF4 gas, and an unfavourably broad longitudinal beam energy spread arising from the magnetic field differential between the source and trap regions. The observed performance was broadly consistent with subsequent simulations that included parameters specific to the test system, and we outline the modifications that would be required to realise efficient positron trapping with CF4. However, additional losses appear to be present which require further investigation through both simulation and experiment