IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO.

4, AUGUST 2003

495

Computational Study of Capacitively Coupled

High-Pressure Glow Discharges in Helium
Xiaohui Yuan and Laxminarayan L. Raja

AbstractThe structure of a capacitively coupled high-pressure

glow (HPG) discharge in high-purity helium is investigated using a
detailed one-dimensional modeling approach. Impurity effects are
modeled using trace amounts of nitrogen gas in helium. Average
electron temperatures and densities for the HPG discharge are similar to their low-pressure counterpart. Helium-dimer ions dominate the discharge structure for sufficiently high-current densities,
but model impurity nitrogen ions are found to be dominant for
low-discharge currents. Helium dimer metastable atoms are found
to be the dominant metastable species in the discharge. The high
collisionality of the HPG plasma results in significant discharge potential drop across the bulk plasma region, electron Joule heating
in the bulk plasma, and electron elastic collisional losses. High collisionality also results in very low ion-impact energies of order 1 eV
at the electrode surfaces.
Index TermsHigh-pressure glow (HPG) discharge, computational modeling, capacitively coupled helium plasma, plasma
impurity effects.

I. INTRODUCTION

ARGE-VOLUME, high-pressure glow (HPG) discharges

are a class of electrical discharges characterized by stable
and highly nonequilibrium glow plasmas that generated and
sustained at pressures as high as one atmosphere [1][7].
HPG discharge plasmas operate in a distinctive regime of
plasma parameter space, where the plasma properties resemble a
low-pressure glow plasmas, but at significantly higher pressure
conditions. HPG discharges have traditionally been used for
gas laser [8], [9] and combustion [10] applications, but there is
significant resurgence in HPG discharge research kindled by
new approaches to generating HPG plasmas and applications
for the same. The ability to dispense with vacuum systems have
facilitated the use of HPG discharges in etching and deposition
of thin films [1], [11][13], surface modification [14], ozone
generation [15], biosterilization [16], and as reflectors and
absorbers of electromagnetic radiation [17], [18].
The novelty of HPG plasma phenomena is in the stable,
large-volume, nonequilibrium characteristics at high pressures.
Stability of a large-volume, self-sustained discharge depends
principally on the current density through the discharge.
Above a certain threshold current density (typically of order
50 mA/cm ), instabilities develop which leads to constriction

Manuscript received November 1, 2002; revised February 22, 2003. This

work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under an NSFCAREER Award (CTS-0 221 557).
The authors are with the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA
(e-mail: lraja@mail.utexas.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2003.815479

of the discharge volume and significant thermal heating of

gas to form filamentary or arc plasmas. This phenomena is
called the glow-to-arc transition. Pressure scaling relationships
for low-pressure glow discharges dictate that for a fixed total
current the discharge current densities increase with increasing
pressures [19]. Above a certain pressure (typically 10 torr),
the current densities can exceed the threshold current densities
for instabilities to develop, resulting in a glow-to-arc transition.
Traditional HPG discharge concepts rely on techniques that
limit discharge current densities from exceeding the threshold
values for discharge stability [4]. For example, in dc HPG discharges, the cathode can be segmented into small sections and
each section individually ballasted with a large resistance to
limit the local current density to values below the threshold
[8]. The same concept can be extended to nonsegmented cathodes made of high-resistivity materials [20]. High gas-flow rates
through the discharge have also been used successfully to limit
the effect of instabilities [21]. Another approach has been to
operate HPG discharges in the pulsed mode with peak current
densities that exceed the threshold but with pulse durations that
are short compared to time scales for growth of instabilities
[22]. Other approaches that avoid electrodes altogether, such
as microwave-driven large-volume HPG discharges in the surface-wave mode, have also been proposed [23].
In a relatively recent development, Kanazawa et al. [1]
have reported a dielectric-barrier concept for HPG plasma
generation. A dielectric barrier covers one or both electrodes
of a parallel-plate discharge, which are driven by a low-frequency ( 150 kHz), high-voltage ( 1 kV) power source.
Highly stable, large-volume, nonequilibrium HPG plasmas are
generated in this configuration. The dielectric barrier serves
to trap charge on the surface during each half cycle, which,
in turn, creates a surface-charge-induced field that opposes
the applied field. The plasma is thereby extinguished before
current densities reach very high values. The overall effect of
the dielectric barrier is to create a plasma pulse during each
half cycle [6], [7]. Another concept reported recently uses a
parallel-plate electrode configuration without dielectric barrier,
but driven at much higher radio-frequencies of order 10 MHz
[5], [24], [25]. The discharge can be classified as a capacitively
coupled HPG discharge and is generated in a closed space
configuration with interelectrode spacing of a few millimeters
at most.
Despite significant interest, our current understanding of
HPG phenomena remains incomplete. Recent computational
modeling studies have begun to reveal some preliminary
insights into HPG phenomena in both dielectric barrier [6] as
well as capacitively coupled configurations [26]. However,

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a detailed understanding of the plasma dynamics, dominant

physical and chemical mechanisms, and structure of HPG
discharges is missing. We have previously reported a computational study of capacitively coupled HPG discharges and
described the role of trace impurities in such large-volume HPG
plasmas [27]. In this study, we present a detailed computational
investigation of the structure and dynamics of capacitively
coupled HPG discharges in pure helium. The presentation in
this paper is as follows. Section II presents a brief description
of the model, followed by results and discussions in Section III,
and a summary with conclusions in Section IV.

where
is the number density of the background species,
is an effective molecular speed of the species, and
is the
momentum transfer collision cross section of the species with
the dominant background.
Closure of the previous system of equations is achieved using
the drift-diffusion approximation for the species number flux
(5)
and a Fouriers law approximation for the electron thermal flux

II. MODEL DESCRIPTION

(6)

A. Governing Equations
The computational model uses a one-dimensional (1-D) continuum multifluid description of the plasma with individual continuity equations describing the concentration of each chemical
species in the plasma, a current continuity equation for the electric potential, and an electron energy equation to describe the
electron temperature in the discharge. The modeling approach
is similar to several other models reported in the literature (see
[28] for an overview) and is described briefly in the following.
The species continuity is given by
(1)
is the number of a species,
is the species flux
where
is the homogeneous production/destruction rate
density,
is the total
of species through gas phase reactions, and
number of charged and neutral gas species in the system. and
are the time and interelectrode axial distance, respectively.
The electric potential in discharge is described by specifying
through the discharge as
total current density
(2)

The

species

diffusion coefficients are

, species mobilities as
and the electron thermal conductivity as

evaluated

as
,
.

B. Boundary Conditions
The boundary conditions imposed are as follows. Flux
boundary conditions are imposed for all species densities at the
electrodes. The electron and product neutral species fluxes are
determined using a kinetically limited Maxwellian flux condi, where the sign
tion as
correspond to the lower and upper electrodes, respectively. The
ions are assumed to be mobility limited at the boundaries and
. All
their boundary fluxes are specified as
metastable species and ions are assumed to quench or neutralize
at the electrode surfaces and return back to the interelectrode
space as stable neutral species. The electron temperatures are
fixed at the surface at 0.5 eV and secondary electron emission
effects are ignored. We have performed sensitivity studies to
confirm that the assumptions of a fixed electron temperature at
the electrodes and zero secondary electron emission have no
significant effect on the solutions.
C. Plasma Chemistry

where is the electric potential, is the unit charge, and

is the species charge number. The electron energy equation is
given as

(3)
and
are the electron temperature and gas temperawhere
is the electron thermal flux,
is the
tures, respectively,
energy lost per electron in an inelastic collision event described
by gas-reaction , is the rate of progress of reaction , and is
electron momentum transfer collision frequency with the backand
are the molecular masses of the elecground gas.
is
tron and dominant background species, respectively and
the Boltzmann constant. The collision frequency of a species
is evaluated as
(4)

The HPG plasma reaction mechanism for the high-purity helium includes pure helium and impurity species and their reactions. Our previous work has shown the importance of including
the effects of even trace amounts of impurity species in the modeling of noble gas HPG plasma phenomena [27]. Since the exact
composition of impurity species in the discharge is unknown,
we have used nitrogen as a model impurity in the simulations.
The reaction mechanism is shown in Table I and is complied
from several literature sources [29][32].
D. Transport Properties
Table II presents the transport properties of the plasma
species. The properties are given in terms of reduced diffusion
and mobilities
and are defined in terms of
coefficients
, and
, respectively, with
being the discharge pressure in torr. These properties have been
complied from literature data [19], [35], [36], and are evaluated
assuming species transport in a helium background gas at a
temperature of 393 K.

YUAN AND RAJA: COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF CAPACITIVELY COUPLED HPG DISCHARGES IN HELIUM

497

TABLE I
REACTION MECHANISM FOR HIGHPRESSURE HELIUM GLOW PLASMA WITH NITROGEN IMPURITY

TABLE II
REDUCED DIFFUSION COEFFICIENTS AND MOBILITIES
BACKGROUND HELIUM GAS

OF

SPECIES IN

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Computational results presented here are validated using data
from recent capacitively coupled HPG discharge experimental
studies by Park et al. [25]. The experiments were conducted
in a parallel-plate discharge configuration with stagnant (nonflowing), high-purity helium as the working gas. The stagnant
gas environment allows accurate modeling using the 1-D
approach. Discharge characteristics for varying interelectrode
spacing and pressures, at a fixed frequency of 13.56 MHz are
simulated in this study.
As mentioned in our previous paper [27], trace impurities
play an important role in determing the structure and dynamics of noble gas HPG discharges and their effect must be

included to predict even global discharge parameters such as

the voltagecurrent (VI) characteristics. The main effect of
the trace impurities is to significantly decrease the differential
impedance of the discharge compared to pure helium. The
exact concentration of model impurity is, therefore, a model
parameter that is determined to best match experimental results.
We have found that model nitrogen impurity with an initial
impurity mole fraction of 5 10 (99.99995% or 0.5 ppm)
in pure helium provides best comparison to experimental data
[27]. This concentration is fixed for all simulation in our study
and is within the rate impurity concentration of 99.9995% for
the helium gas used in the experiments. Order-of-magnitude
estimates indicate that gas heating under discharge conditions
are not significant enough to cause a large temperature rise. In
our study, the gas temperature is assumed fixed at 393 K and is
the same as the experimentally measured gas temperatures [25].
We first provide validation of the modeling approach by direct comparison between experimental data and our simulation
results for VI characteristics of the discharge. Fig. 1 shows
root-mean-square (rms) VI characteristics for varying interelectrode distances of 1.6, 2.4, and 3.2 mm at a fixed discharge
pressure of 600 torr. The same characteristics for varying pressures of 300, 450, and 600 torr at a fixed interelectrode distance
of 2.4 mm is presented in Fig. 2. All experimental VI curves
show an initial prebreakdown (no discharge) stage with linear
rise in the voltage followed by a HPG stage where the voltage
increases slowly for an increase in the current. For higher current densities, the voltage becomes relatively independent of the
current through the discharge. The differential impedance of the

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Fig. 1. Comparison of experimental and simulated rms VI characteristics for

varying interelectrode distances of 1.6, 2.4, and, 3.2 mm and a fixed pressure
of 600 torr. The RF frequency is 13.56 MHz for all cases. Circle symbols
correspond to 1.6, triangles are 2.4, and rectangles are at 3.2 mm. Simulation
results are connected by a line.

Fig. 2. Comparison of experimental and simulated rms VI characteristics for

varying discharge pressures of 300, 450, 600 torr, and a fixed interelectrode
distance of 2.4 mm. The RF frequency is 13.56 MHz for all cases. Circle
symbols correspond 300, triangles are 450, and rectangles are at 600 torr.
Simulation results are connected by a line.

HPG discharge is, therefore, small for low-current densities and

nearly zero for high-current densities. HPG discharge voltages
increase with increasing interelectrode distance for a fixed pressure and increase with increasing pressures for a fixed interelectrode distance. The maximum current densities for which
the experimental data are shown correspond to threshold current densities for glow-to-arc transition. The model predicts all
important features of the experimental data with good predictions of the experimental voltages at the high-current densities.
The voltage is underpredicted at low-current densities but the
trends are captured adequately. Importantly, the low differential
impedance at low-current densities followed by the near-zero
differential impedance at the high-current densities are observed
in the model results. We must, however, emphasize that the
model does not represent the physics of the discharge adequately
to capture the breakdown and glow-to-arc transition limits.
Fig. 3 shows the voltage- and current-density waveforms for
a 600 torr discharge, with a 2.4-mm interelectrode spacing and
a 21.2 mA/cm rms current density. The waveforms show a
smooth and near-sinusoidal voltage characteristic for the imposed sinusoidal current. The current is also found to lead the
voltage waveform by 35.7 . These model results are consistent

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 31, NO. 4, AUGUST 2003

Fig. 3. Simulated voltage and current density waveforms for a 600-torr

discharge with 2.4-mm interelectrode spacing, 13.56-MHz RF frequency, and
21.2-mA/cm rms current density.

Fig. 4. Simulated potential profiles at four times instances during an RF

cycle for a 600-torr discharge with 2.4-mm interelectrode spacing, 13.56-MHz
RF frequency, and 21.2-mA/cm rms current density. The fractional time
0 corresponds to a positive maximum phase of the discharge current, 0.25
corresponds to zero current, 0.5 corresponds to the negative maximum phase
of the discharge current, and 0.75 to the subsequent zero current.

with experimental data, where smooth and nearly sinusoidal VI

waveforms are observed under HPG conditions, especially at
low- and intermediate-current densities [25].
Fig. 4 shows the interelectrode electric potential profiles for
the same discharge parameters as in Fig. 3. Distinct regions
corresponding to the electrode sheaths and a bulk plasma in
between them, can be identified. Large potential drops are
observed at the sheaths at cycle fractional times of 0.25 and
0.75 while large drops are observed through the bulk plasma
at fractional times of 0 and 0.5. The cycle fractional times
of 0.25 and 0.75 correspond to the zero current phases of
the cycle, while fractional times of 0 and 0.5 correspond to
the maximum current phases of the cycle. These discharge
potential profiles show significant differences compared to
classical low-pressure capacitively coupled glow discharges,
where the discharge potential drops occur almost entirely across
the sheaths at all times during an RF cycle. The large bulk
plasma potential drop for the HPG discharge at the maximum
current phases is a result of the high pressures which results
in significant resistivity of the bulk plasma. The maximum
electric field strength predicted in the sheath region of the HPG
discharge is of order 4 kV/cm which is somewhat higher than
typical field strengths ( 0.5 kV/cm) observed in the sheaths
of low-pressure capacitively coupled discharges [31], [33].

YUAN AND RAJA: COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF CAPACITIVELY COUPLED HPG DISCHARGES IN HELIUM

Fig. 5. Spatial profiles of important discharge parameters. The discharge

operating conditions are the same as in Fig. 4. The top panel shows the
time-averaged electron temperature and number densities. The center panel
shows the dominant ion densities and the bottom panel shows the neutral
species densities.

Spatial profiles of time-averaged electron temperature and

species number densities are shown in Fig. 5. The discharge
operating conditions are the same as in Fig. 4. The top panel
shows time-averaged profiles of the electron temperature and
electron number densities. The average temperature is nearly
uniform in the bulk plasma (about 1 eV) but rises to peak values
of about 2.5 eV within the sheaths. The average electron density
is a maximum at the center of the discharge and drops toward
the electrodes. The peak calculated electron density is about
1.8 10 m at the center of the discharge and is close to the
experimental estimate of 3 10 m [25]. A small hump in
the electron density profile is observed inside the sheaths and is
a consequence of significant volumetric production of electrons
through plasma reactions in the sheaths. This phenomena must
be contrasted with low-pressure glow discharge sheaths where
effect of plasma chemistry is negligible and charge generation
is mostly confined to the sheath-bulk plasma interface and bulk
plasma region [31], [33], [34]. The center panel shows time-averaged ion density profiles in the discharge. The ion densities
experience negligible modulation during an RF cycle owing to
their heavier mass, although relatively small modulations are
noticed for the helium ions within the sheaths. The dominant
ion in the bulk plasma is He , while the impurity ion N dominates in the sheath region. N ion density profile resembles the
He ions with a maximum at the center of the discharge and
much lower values in the sheaths. He ion densities are negligible throughout the discharge. The ion density profiles indicate that He and N ions are generated by reactions in the bulk
plasma or the sheath-bulk plasma interface regions while the N
ions are generated predominantly within the sheath regions. The

499

Fig. 6. Time-averaged contributions of gas-phase reaction pathways to

the generation/destruction of electrons in the HPG discharge. The discharge
operating conditions are the same as in Fig. 4.

neutral species profiles are shown in the bottom panel. Both the
helium metastable species He and He have peaks within the
sheaths, indicating significant volumetric production of these
species inside the sheath regions. The helium metastable profiles have a minimum at the center of the discharge owing to net
volumetric destruction in the bulk plasma. The metastable densities drop close to the electrodes owing to surface quenching
effects. The nitrogen atom N shows a peak at the center of the
discharge and drop toward the electrodes. The nitrogen (impurity) molecules N are depleted at the center of the discharge
and are regenerated at the two electrodes by surface neutralization of nitrogen ions and recombination of N radicals. The
He background species density is nearly uniform throughout the
discharge and has a value of 1.47 10 m .
The previous spatial profiles of important species in the
plasma are established by the combined effect of gas-phase
plasma reactions, transport, and surface reactions at the electrodes. The time-averaged contributions of the gas-reaction
pathways to the productions/destruction of electrons in the
discharge are presented in Fig. 6. The discharge operating
conditions are the same as in Fig. 4. The figure shows rates
of 11 reactions (see Table I) that contribute to the electron
density balance. The reactions with highest contribution to
the volumetric production rate of electrons are shown in the
, which is the Penning ionization of
top panel. Reaction
N by metastable He , is the dominant reaction for electron
production and plays an important role only within the sheaths
where N densities are high. The second most important con, which is the electron impact
tribution comes from reaction
ionization of the He background atoms. Again the contribution
of this reaction is dominant in the sheaths where the electron

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Fig. 7. Time-averaged contributions of Joule heating, and elastic and inelastic

collisions to the electron energy balance in the discharge. The discharge
operating conditions are the same as in Fig. 4.

temperatures are high. The center and bottom panels show that
(Penning ionization of N by metastable He ),
reactions
(stepwise ionization of He ),
(electron impact ioniza(stepwise ionization of He ), and
(electron
tion of N),
impact ionization of N ) also play a relatively minor role in the
electron production inside the sheaths. In the bulk plasma, the
, followed
dominant contributors to electron production are
. The bottom panel shows that the electrons are also
by
(dissociative
consumed within the discharge by reactions
(dissociative recombination of
recombination of N ) and
He ). The remaining electrons are consumed at the electrodes.
Fig. 6 provides a vivid picture of how the impurity species
(N ) alters the charge balance in a noble gas HPG discharge
by participating in Penning ionizations reactions within the
sheaths. The figure also points to another important distiction
between low-pressure glow and HPG discharges. Unlike
low-pressure capacitively coupled discharges where charge
production is confined mostly to the sheath-bulk plasma
interface region [31], [33], [34], the charge production in
HPG discharges is distributed throughout the discharge and in
particular is very high within the sheath regions.
The time-averaged contributions of volumetric source/sink
terms that contribute to the electron energy balance in the discharge are shown in Fig. 7. These include Joule heating, inelastic collisional loss/gain, and elastic collisional loss terms.
These are the third, fourth, and fifth terms in (3), respectively.
Joule heating is the principal source of electron heating in the
discharge and is dominant in the bulk plasma as well as the
sheath-bulk plasma interface region. The main volumetric loss
of electron energy comes from elastic collisions of the high-temperature electrons with the low-temperature background heavy
species. Inelastic collisions contribute to a net loss of electron
energy although the magnitude of the inelastic loss is small compared to the elastic collisional loss of electron energy. Fig. 7 also
points to important differences in the mechanisms of electron
energy balance in HPG discharges and low-pressure glow discharges. In capacitively coupled low-pressure glow discharges,
Joule heating is largely confined to the sheath-bulk plasma interface regions where electric field strengths are high and electron
particle fluxes are significant [33], [34]. In the capacitively coupled HPG discharge, however, electric field strengths are high in
the bulk plasma as well as the sheaths and, hence, Joule heating

Fig. 8. Dependence of time-averaged electron density profiles for varying

discharge parameters. The top panel shows variation with rms current density
for fixed pressure of 600 torr and 2.4-mm interelectode gap. The middle panel
shows variations with pressure for a fixed rms current density of 21.2 mA/cm
and 2.4-mm interelectode gap. The bottom panel shows variations with
interelectrode gap for a fixed pressure of 600 torr and rms current density of
21.2 mA/cm . The RF frequency is 13.56 MHz for all cases. The units for each
parameter varied are indicated in brackets.

is distributed throughout the discharge, except near the electrode

where electron densities are low. Another major difference between low-pressure and HPG discharges is the contribution of
elastic collisional loss terms. Elastic collisional loss to the background gas is negligible in most low-pressure glow discharges
and is often neglected in the modeling of such discharges [28].
However, elastic collisions are the dominant volumetric electron
energy loss mechanism in HPG discharges.
The effect of changes in discharge operating parameters is
discussed next. Fig. 8 shows the time-averaged electron density profiles for changes in the rms current density, pressure,
and interelectrode gap. The magnitude of the current densities
through the discharge has a large impact on the discharge structure. The electron densities increase for increasing current densities. In addition, electron production due to Penning ionization
reactions within the sheaths depends significantly on the current
densities through the discharge. For the lowest current density
case shown (8.5 mA/cm ), the electron production in the sheaths
is negligible compared to the higher current density cases. This,
in turn, manifests itself as an increasingly prominent hump in
the density profiles within the sheath regions for increasing current densities. As shown in the center panel, the electron densities are nearly unchanged for changes in discharge pressure,
indicating that under high-pressure conditions, the magnitude
of the discharge pressure itself is relatively unimportant in determining the global characteristics of an HPG plasma. From the
bottom panel it is seen that changes in the gap distance results
in a relatively small increase in the maximum electron number
densities at the center of the discharge. Since the sheath thick-

YUAN AND RAJA: COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF CAPACITIVELY COUPLED HPG DISCHARGES IN HELIUM

Fig. 9. Dependence of the time-averaged electron temperatures for varying

discharge parameters. The parameters varied in each panel are the same as in
Fig. 8.

ness remains relatively constant for all gap lengths, the main
effect of increasing the gap length is the increase in the length
of the bulk plasma region.
The effect of varying discharge operating parameters on the
time-averaged electron temperature profiles is shown in Fig. 9.
The top panel shows that with the exception of the lowest current
density case (8.5 mA/cm ), the electron temperatures are relatively independent of the magnitude of the current flow through
the discharge. For the low-current density case, the average electron temperature in the bulk plasma is about 0.2 eV, which is significantly lower than the 1-eV average temperature for the other
cases. As in the case of electron densities, the electron temperatures are relatively independent of the discharge pressures. Also,
variations in the gap length results in a longer bulk plasma region with negligible change in magnitudes of the bulk plasma
temperature and peak sheath temperature.
Results from both Figs. 8 and 9 indicate that the rms current
density through the discharge has the most significant effect on
the HPG discharge properties. In particular, two distinct regimes
in the current density can be identified; one being the low-current
density regime and the other the intermediate to high-current
density regime. These two regimes were identified in our earlier
discussion on the discharge VI characteristics, as regimes
with low-differential impedance (low-current densities) and
near-zero differential impedance (intermediate-to-high current
densities). Further insights into the discharge structure in these
current regimes can be obtained from Fig. 10, where the
time-averaged profiles of all ions in the discharge are plotted
at the three rms currents densities for a fixed pressure of
600 torr and a gap of 2.4 mm. The intermediate (21.2 mA/cm )
and high-current density (31.8 mA/cm ) cases are characterized
by He as the dominant ion in the bulk plasma region and N

501

Fig. 10. Dependence of the time-averaged ion density profiles on the current
densities through the discharge. The pressure is fixed at 600 torr, the RF
frequency is 13.56 MHz, and the gap distance is 2.4 mm. The numbers against
each curve indicates the the rms current density in mA/cm .

as the dominant ion in the sheath regions. Somewhat lower N

ions are also observed in the bulk-plasma region. However,
in the low-current density case (8.5 mA/cm ), the discharge
structure swithes to a different regime where the impurity ion
N is the only dominant ion in the discharge with all other
ion densities being negligible. He ions are negligible for all
cases.
An detailed analysis of the gas reaction pathways for the
low-current density case compared to the intermediate and
high-current density cases reveals reasons for the switch in
the dominant bulk plasma ion species at low-current densities compared to intermediate and high-current densities. The
relatively low bulk plasma electron temperatures of 0.2 eV in
the low-current density case causes Penning ionization of the
and
) to dominate
impurity molecule N (reactions
the overall ionization rate when compared to direct or stepor
). This is owing
wise ionization of helium (reactions
to the fact that direct and stepwise ionization of helium are
activated processes and require higher electron temperatures
for the corresponding rates to be high. As a consequence, N
ions are the dominant ion species at the low current densities.
At higher current densities, the plasma electron temperatures
are higher, causing the direct and stepwise ionization of helium to dominate the plasma ionization mechanism. He ions
produced thereby, are rapidly converted to He ions through
, resulting in dominant He in the bulk
three-body reaction
plasma for the intermediate- to high-current density cases.
Finally, the ion impact energy distribution functions (IEDF)
at one of the electrodes for discharge pressures of 600 and
300 torr are presented in Fig. 11. The IEDF is defined as the
fractional flux of each type of ions impacting the surface at a

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ions. For example, at 300 torr, the maximum ion impact energy
of N increases to about 3.7 eV compared to 1 eV at 600 torr.
IV. CONCLUSION

Fig. 11. Ion impact energy distribution functions for each ion species
impacting an electrode. The discharge parameters correspond to 2.4-mm
interelectrode gap, 13.56-MHz RF frequency, and 21.2-mA/cm rms current
density. The top panel shows results for 600 torr and the bottom panel for
300-torr discharge pressures.

given impact energy, per unit impact energy. The IEDFs for
all ions are bimodal with a peak at the minimum energy of ion
impact and another peak at the maximum energy of ion impact.
The bimodal IEDF is also observed for RF biased surfaces
in low-pressure glow discharges. For the HPG discharge, the
minimum energy peaks correspond to near-zero ion impact
energies for all ions, while the maximum energy peak varies
significantly depending on the type of ion and the pressure. The
ion impact energy distribution is found to be widest for the N
ions, followed by N , He , and He in order of decreasing
distribution widths. The maximum ion impact energy at
600 torr is about 1 eV for the N ions and about 0.05 eV for the
He ions. The corresponding maximum ion impact energies at
300 torr are about 3.6 eV for N ions and 0.2 eV for He ions.
The previous ion impact energy distribution trends are contrary to trends observed for RF biased surfaces in low-pressure
glow discharges. In low-pressure glow discharges the distribution widths increase with decreasing ion mass [37][39] while
in the HPG discharge the widths decrease with decreasing ion
mass. For low-pressure glow discharges, the sheaths are weakly
collisional or collisionless which causes ion transport in the
sheath to be dominated by inertial effects resulting in the IEDF
widths being inversely related to the ion mass. In HPG discharges, the sheaths are highly collisional and the ion transport
depends largely on the electric-field-induced species mobility.
Ions with higher mobility are able to follow the sheath electric
field oscillation more closely and hence experience wider IEDFs
at the electrode surface. Lower mobility ions are much more
sluggish in their response to sheath electric field oscillations,
which results in a narrower IEDFs. In a helium background gas,
the ions N , N , He , and He ions have decreasing mobility
in that order (see Table II) and, hence, their ion impact energy
distributions have correspondingly narrower distributions. A decrease in the discharge pressure results in an overall increase in
the mobility of all ions, which results in wider distribution for all

We have presented a detailed computational study of capacitively coupled, HPG discharges in high purity helium. A
1-D, self-consistent, continuum plasma model is developed and
used. Small concentrations of a model nitrogen impurity in
pure helium (5 10 in mole fraction or 0.5 ppm) is required
to model discharge properties accurately. The model predicts
the experimental VI characteristics for a range of pressures
and gap distances. The discharge structure consists of a bulk
plasma region and sheath regions adjacent to the electrodes.
The predicted average electron temperatures of order 1 eV and
electron number densities of order 10 cm are comparable to
those found in most low-pressure glow discharges. The electron
temperatures are relatively independent of the current density
through the discharge as well as discharge pressures, except for
low-current densities where the temperature drops significantly.
The electron temperatures depend largely on Joule heating in
the bulk plasma and the sheath-plasma interface regions as well
as electron energy loss by elastic collisions with colder heavy
species. This contrasts with low-pressure capacitively coupled
glow discharges where elastic collision losses are negligible
and Joule heating is dominant only in the plasma-sheath interface region. The plasma electron density depends strongly
on the current density through the discharge but is relatively
independent of the discharge pressure. The ion concentration
in the discharge is dominated by dimer helium ions He in the
bulk plasma and impurity N ions in the sheaths. However,
at low-current densities the impurity ions dominate almost the
entire discharge structure. The dimer helium metastables He
are observed to be the dominant metastable species in the
discharge with densities of order 10 cm . Owing to highly
collisional sheaths, the ion-impact energies at the electrodes
are found to range from near-zero values to a maximum of a
few electronvolts. These energies are very low compared to
low-pressure glow discharges where ion impact energies can
range from order 10 to a few 100 eV.
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Xiaohui Yuan received the B.S. degree in chemical

engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China, in 1999, and is currently working toward the
Ph.D. degree.

Laxminarayan L. Raja received the B.Tech. degree

in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Chennai, India, in 1990, the M.S. degree
in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University,
College Station, in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from The University of Texas at
Austin, in 1996.
He is currently an Assistant Professor of aerospace
engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His
research interests include glow-discharge plasmas,
computational modeling and experimental studies
of high-pressure glow discharges, materials processing discharges, and plasma
propulsion for spacecrafts.