Characteristics of the plasma sheath in helium discharge within dielectric tubes

To understand the characteristics of the plasma sheath within small tubes,a 2D numerical model of He discharge within dielectric tubes is developed.During plasma propagation for a tube diameter of 0.05 mm,the sheath thickness in the plasma head is almost equal to the tube radius.It decreases rapidly to several micrometers at an axial distance of 0.05 mm behind the plasma head,and then slightly increases and saturates at the axial position far behind the plasma head.A plasma-gas sheath surrounding the central plasma column is observed for a tube diameter equal to or greater than 0.8 mm.It is replaced by a plasma-wall sheath for smaller tubes.With the decrease in the tube diameter,the sheath thickness far behind the plasma head decreases while the ion flux increases significantly.However,when O_(2)gas with a proportion of 2%is added,both the sheath thickness and ion flux decrease.

Numerical study on an atmospheric pressure helium discharge propagating in a dielectric tube:influence of tube diameter

In this work, a two-dimensional numerical simulation of the discharge characteristics of helium plasma propagating inside a dielectric tube was performed. A trapezoidal ＋9 kV pulse lasting 400 ns was applied on a needle electrode set inside the dielectric tube to ignite the discharge. The discharges generated in the tubes with a variable or a constant inner diameter were investigated.The focus of this study was on clarifying the effect of the tube diameter on the discharge structure and dynamics. The comparison of the discharge characteristics generated in dielectric tubes with different diameters was carried out. It was shown that the tube diameter plays a significant role in discharge behavior of plasma propagating in the dielectric tube.

Formation and destruction of striation plasmas in helium glow discharge at medium pressures

The striation plasmas are usually generated within a positive column of glow discharge,where rich and complex physical interactions are involved,especially,in the medium or high pressures.Along these lines,our work aims to thoroughly investigate the formation and destruction of helium striation plasmas at kPa level pressures.The characteristics of the helium striation plasmas,and especially the optical emission properties are explored.The emission lines of 706.52 nm and391.44 nm related to the energetic electrons and the high-energy metastable helium atoms respectively,were focused on in this work.The formation of striation plasmas in a helium glow discharge,is mainly associated with the instability originating from the stepwise ionization of high-energy metastable state atoms,Maxwellization of the electron distribution functions and gas heating.Additionally,the destruction effect of helium striation plasmas is of great significance when a small amount of nitrogen or oxygen is mixed into the discharge plasmas.The reduction of the mean electron energy and the consumption of the high-energy metastable helium atoms are considered as the underlying reasons for the destruction of striation plasmas.

Relative Responses of Noble Gases Using a Pulsed Discharge Helium Photoionization Detector:Theoretical Calculation and Experimental Determination

The relative response factors（RRFs） for noble gas（Ng） were determined on a pulsed discharge helium photoionization detector. Using ab initio method, the atomic orbitals of noble gas were calculated and used to determine the number of ionizable electrons on the basis of the continuous emission of He2. The molar responses of noble gases is well correlated with the number of ionizable electrons.

Spectroscopic Measurement of Neutral Particle Influx Ratio on EAST

The spectra of HeI（587.6 nm）,Hα（656.28 nm） and Dα（656.1 nm） of the helium discharges as well as the normal deuterium discharges have been measured with two optical spectroscopic multi-channel analysis（OMA） systems on the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak（EAST）.The influx ratio of the sum of H and D to He spectral lines and the influx ratio of H to D are given.In this way the ratio of hydrogen/deuterium ion（S/X B）H/D to（S/X B）He as well as（S/X B）H/D is not very sensitive to the variation in the edge density and temperature. The low-density helium discharges are operated in order to reduce the recycling hydrogen fluxes; however,the effect is not obvious.The possible reason is that the number of helium discharges is not enough and the content of hydrogen in the wall is still very abundant,which is caused by frequent wall conditionings and the vacuum leakage.The H/（H＋D） ratio decreases quickly after one lithium coating and reduces to less than 10%using several accumulated lithium wall conditioning.It is found that the deposited He atoms on the carbon wall will remain at a low level after several D2 discharges.