Emission and absorption spectroscopy study of Ar excited states in 13.56 MHz argon plasma operating at sub-atmospheric to atmospheric pressure

摘要

The densities of metastable and resonant states of Ar atoms are measured in high pressure Ar radio frequency discharge. Resonant absorption spectroscopy for the case of a low pressure spectral lamp and high-pressure plasma absorption lines is implemented for this purpose. The necessary generalizations for the high-pressure resonant absorption method are given. Absolute density of Ar 1s levels obtained at different RF input power and operating pressures are of the order of 10(11) cm(-3), which is in a good agreement with those reported in the literature. The population distribution on the Ar 2p (excited) levels, obtained from the optical emission spectroscopy, reveals strong deviation from thermal equilibrium for these levels in the high-pressure case. The generation of the Ar excited states in the studied discharges is compared to the previously reported results. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.