We developed and tested 2D “extended fluid model” of a dc glow discharge using COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS software and implemented two different approaches. First, assembling the model from COMSOL’s general form pde’s and, second, using COMSOL’s built-in Plasma Module. The discharge models are based on the fluid description of ions and excited neutral species and use drift-diffusion approximation for the particle fluxes. The electron transport as well as the rates of electron-induced plasma-chemical reactions are calculated using the Boltzmann equation for the EEDF and corresponding collision cross-sections. The self-consistent electric field is calculated from the Poisson equation. Basic discharge plasma properties such as current-voltage characteristics and electron and ion spatial density distributions as well as electron temperature and electric field profiles were studied. While the solutions obtained by two different COMSOL models are essentially identical, the discrepancy between COMSOL and CFD-ACE+ model solutions is about several percents and caused by the difference in the models due to undocumented details in the software packages. We also studied spatial distributions of particle fluxes in discharge plasma and identified the existence of vortex component of the discharge current.

It is demonstrated for the first time that the presence of a small number of fast, nonlocal electrons can dramatically change the thickness of and electric field in the near-wall sheath. Even if the density of the nonlocal fast group, , is much less than the density of the bulk electrons, (), the near-wall potential can increase dramatically resulting in a comparable increase in the sheath thickness. Because of this low fractional density, the average energy (electron temperature ) of all electrons is little changed from that of the bulk, yet the near-wall potential drop can increase to tens of . More importantly, due to the nonlocal nature of this group of electrons, the near-wall sheath potential is found to be independent of and is determined only by the energy of the fast group.

An analytical model for estimating basic characteristics of short (without a positive column) glow discharges is suggested that allows for electron generation both in the cathode sheath and by...