Dynamics of micro cavity plasma arrays: Simulation of ionization wave propagation

Summary form only given. The microcavity plasma array has been developed by J.G. Eden and co-workers as an efficient light source. This device consists of a silicon wafer with a matrix of inverse pyramidal cavities of the size of a few ten micro meters. The structure is covered by dielectrics. A nickel grid embedded inside the dielectrics acts as counter electrode. The discharge is driven by a triangular voltage at a frequency of 10-100 kHz in argon at atmospheric pressure. For the naked eye the array emits a bright glow that appears homogeneous over a very large area. However, spatially and temporally resolved emission spectroscopy performed by V. Schulz-von der Gathen and co-workers reveals that this impression is misleading. The discharge as a hole shows strong interactions between neighboring micro discharges. In this contribution we investigate the fundamental phenomenon behind the plasma-plasma interaction by numerical simulations.