ИСТИНА

The optical emission study of dc gas discharges provides a deep insight into discharge structure which depends on the gas type as well as on the experimental conditions. In this contribution, a comparative study of low pressure dc discharges in atomic inert Ar and molecular N2 gases, under the same experimental conditions (flow rate, pressure, discharge current) is reported and discussed. The in-situ and non invasive optical emission spectroscopy (OES) technique is employed to monitor the emitting species for defining the radial and axial anatomy of dc Ar and N2 discharges. Thus, the aim of this work is to evidence differences, such as the glow distribution, the absorbed power, and analogies such as the distribution of the neutral and ionic species along the interelectrode gap and the tube radius.