Investigation of atmospheric pressure gas discharge plasmas

This study has investigated the current characteristic and radiation characteristic of GaP semiconductor cathode in air ambient in a plane gas discharge cell. The experiments conducted for different electrode diameters (D=12mm and 15mm) distance values between electrodes (d=45 µm, 90 µm, 143 µm, 240 µm, 323 µm, 445 µm and 525 µm) have been repeated. The effect of electrode diameter and distance between electrodes has been examined in a wide range of pressure. Measurements starting from p=28 Torr to the atmospheric pressure level (p=690 Torr) have been made. Thus, the impact of pressure on current and radiation characteristics has been investigated. Current and radiation characteristics become unstable in direct proportion to the increase in the distance between the electrodes and electrode diameter. This study is significant from the point that the GaP shows a behavior of both direct bandwidth and indirect bandwidth. In addition to this, GaP is an alternative semiconductor material to the other expensive and more toxic semiconductors.Key Words: Townsend discharge, Glow discharge, inert gases, GaP