A study of an Argon-Helium parallel plate discharge structure using OES*

The glow discharge (GD) is one of the oldest and most common methods for generating plasmas. In this work, the emission lines of argon and helium were analyzed using Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES), from 200 nm to 900 nm, of a GD in a 10 cm cylindrical glass tube with a graphite cathode and a copper anode. This study provided detailed information about the distribution of the population of different excited states in various regions of the GD with different ratios of gas mixtures at pressures ranging from 50 to 200 mTorr and voltages applied to the cathode ranging from 400 V to 1000 V. This will allow for a better understanding of the processes that occur in each region of the plasma, and how these processes are affected and modified by changing conditions.