Calculation of average energy of particles of plasma of an abnormal glow discharge in an atmosphere of noble gas, which are bombarding a surface of the cathode

The mean energy [Ei+n], of the particles bombarding cathode is plotted as a function of the ratio of the discharge-current density to the square of the working-gas pressure, j/p(2), for the abnormal glow discharge in a noble-gas atmosphere (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) and for the three values of work function, ecp, of the cathode material. The energy distributions for ions and fast atoms [9, 10] are used for calculating [Ei+n]. These distributions are constructed on the basis of the assumption that the energy gained by the ion, which moves within the region of the cathode-potential drop, is mainly determined by the symmetric resonance charge-exchange processes. It is shown that for the same values of j/p(2), the magnitude of [Ei+n] is maximum for Ne atmosphere, and minimum for Xe atmosphere. The mean energy of ions impinging on the cathode is found to be about twice as great as the mean energy of fast neutrals. The cathode-potential drop, U-c, and the number of fast atoms, L/l, which arise in the region of a cathode-potential drop during hit into it of one ion, are plotted as functions of the j/p(2) value at variation of a type of noble gas and values of e phi. The empirical formulae for calculation of U-c and [Ei+n] are proposed.