The effects of metastable atoms on the argon glow discharge at atmospheric pressure

Owning to the great importance of capacitively coupled radio frequency argon atmospheric glow discharge for which no simulation work has been reported so far, we employ a one dimensional self-consisted fluid model to investigate the influence of metastable atoms on the discharge characteristics. A series of collision processes are considered and the effects of metastable atoms on discharge are examined with and without them into the model. Strongly nonlinear partial differential equations are solved by making use of the so-called finite volume method. The numerical results indicate that the metastable atoms are significant in the atmospheric argon glow discharge. In presence of the metastable atoms into the model the density of the plasma is lower than that in the case when they are not considered. The ionization mechanisms are also different in both the cases, i.e. without and with metastable atoms. The step-wise ionization becomes the major ionization mechanism in the latter case. The heating mechanisms in two cases are also investigated in detail.