Different Pressure Regimes of a Surface-wave Discharge in Argon: a Modeling Investigation

In this paper, we present a 2D axisymmetric plasma fluid model for microwave plasmas operating in argon. The effect of the pressure on the plasma parameters is studied over a wide range of pressures going from 10 mbar to atmospheric pressure. The model shows that the discharge contracts with the increase of gas pressure. Additionally, a first reduction of the CO2 chemistry set of [11,12] from 126 species to 35 species is also presented in this paper. It is shown that this reduction has very little effect on the quantities of interest at the conditions under study.