NONLINEARITY - BASIS FOR SELF-CONSISTENT MODELING OF SURFACE-WAVE PRODUCED PLASMAS IN-DIFFUSION CONTROLLED REGIMES

A fluid model of surface wave produced discharges is presented for dif fusion controlled regimes taking into account simultaneously nonlinear contributions from stepwise ionization and volume recombination. The saturation of metastable densities with growing electron density reduc es the effect of step ionization and allows recombination to become ef fective toward high electron densities. The charged particle continuit y and energy balance equations linking electron density and electric f ield intensity yield the plasma permittivity under conditions of stron g ionization nonlinearity. This permittivity is valid for high frequen cy discharges in general. In the second part of the modeling this nonl inear permittivity is introduced into the electrodynamical relations f or discharges maintained by the field of traveling surface waves, and subsequently the self-consistent behavior of plasma and wave character istics along the discharge length is calculated. Both the main part of the discharge column produced by Joule heating in the plasma volume a nd the end section of the discharge, where the mechanism of resonance absorption of the wave power close to the tube wall can sustain the di scharge, are considered. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.