Experimental and Theoretical Study of Transition Between Glow Modes of Planar Barrier Capacitive RF Discharge in Argon at One Atmosphere Pressure

Characteristics of planar barrier radio frequency (RF) discharge in different modes at atmospheric pressure of Ar have been studied experimentally and theoretically. Experimental data, as well as results of numeric simulation, have shown a presence of transient mode of the discharge glow, which is due to coexistence of low-current α and high-current γ discharge modes with occurrence of a transition between the modes during each half cycle of RF voltage supplied to the discharge.