Modeling of the glow discharge cathode sheath and the cathode surface sputtering in a mixture of argon with mercury vapor


Cite item

Full Text

Open Access Open Access
Restricted Access Access granted
Restricted Access Subscription Access

Abstract

A model of the glow discharge cathode sheath in a mixture of argon with mercury vapor used in gas discharge illuminating lamps is developed. It takes into account that at the stage of lamp ignition the mercury atom density is by several orders lower than the argon atom density and depends on the temperature. The cathode sheath characteristics are calculated and it is shown that at a temperature increase, due to growing contribution of the mercury atom Penning ionization, the discharge cathode voltage drop is decreased and the ratio of the mercury and argon ion current densities at the cathode is increased. The energy spectra of the mixture component ion flows bombarding the cathode surface, as well as their corresponding effective sputtering rates and the sputtered atom flow densities, are found. It is shown that at low values of the discharge current density mercury ions practically do not participate in the cathode sputtering because their energies are less than the threshold sputtering energy. However, at its higher values they can make a significant contribution to the sputtering despite the small mercury content in the mixture.

About the authors

M. S. Dubinina

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Author for correspondence.
Email: m.s.dubinina95@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Kaluga Branch, Kaluga, 248000

D. O. Savichkin

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Email: m.s.dubinina95@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Kaluga Branch, Kaluga, 248000

M. R. Fisher

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Email: m.s.dubinina95@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Kaluga Branch, Kaluga, 248000

V. I. Kristya

Bauman Moscow State Technical University

Email: m.s.dubinina95@gmail.com
Russian Federation, Kaluga Branch, Kaluga, 248000

Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
Action
1. JATS XML

Copyright (c) 2017 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.