Second Order Fluid Glow Discharge Model Sustained by Different Source Terms

Behavior of charged particles in a dc low pressure glow discharge is studied. The electric properties of the glow discharge in argon, maintained by a constant source term with uniform electron and ion generation, between two plane electrodes or by secondary electron emission at the cathode, are determined. A fluid model is used to solve self-consistently the first three moments of the Boltzmann equation coupled with the Poisson equation. The stationary spatial distribution of the electron and ion densities, the electric potential, the electric field, and the electron energy, in a two-dimensional configuration (2D), are presented.