• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.571-580
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• 1998

The numerical model that can describe the ignition of pseudospark discharge using hybrid fluid-particle(Monte Carlo )method has been developed. This model consists of the fluid expression for transport of electrons and ions and Poisson's equation in the electric field. The fluid equation determines the spatiotemporal dependence of charged particle densities and the ionization source term is computed using the Monte carlo method. This model has been used to study the evolution of a discharge in Argon at 0.5 torr, with an applied voltage if 1kV. The evolution process of the discharge has been divided into four phases along the potential distribution : (1) Townsend discharge, (2) plasma formation, (3) onset of hollow cathode effect, (4) plasma expansion. From the numerical results, the physical mechanisms that lead to the rapid rise in current associated with the onset of pseudospark could be identified.