Fluid modeling of a microwave micro-plasma at atmospheric pressure

¹ Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
² Laboratoire de Physique des Gaz et des Plasmas, Université Paris-Sud/CNRS, 91405 Orsay, France

Corresponding author: jose.gregorio@u-psud.fr

Received: 29 June 2009
Accepted: 2 October 2009
Published online: 26 November 2009

Abstract

This paper presents the modeling of an argon micro-plasma produced by microwaves (2.45 GHz) at atmospheric pressure. The study uses a one-dimensional stationary fluid-type code that solves the transport equations for electrons, positive ions Ar⁺ and Ar⁺₂, and the electron mean energy, together with Poisson's equation for the space-charge electrostatic field, Maxwell's equations for the electromagnetic excitation field and the gas thermal energy equation. The model uses a simple kinetic scheme for Ar that includes the ground state, an excited state representing the lumped 4s levels, and two ionization states associated to the atomic and the molecular ions. The ions are assumed to be in thermal equilibrium with the neutral gas, having the same temperature profile.