Towards a reduced chemistry module of a He–Ar–Cu hollow cathode discharge

This study is aimed at finding a reduced chemistry module for a hollow cathode discharge (HCD) excited in a He–Ar–Cu mixture. This enables us to construct lean and reliable models that can be used as a part of the design tool of HCDs. To this end estimative calculations and numerical simulations are performed under optimal conditions for lasing. An analysis of the species behaviour and reactions is made and as a result the model is simplified by means of reducing the number of species and reactions. The consequences of these reductions are justified by comparing the results of the simplified models with those of a more complete one. This study delivers a model that is chemically lean and thus, much less time consuming. It can be used in optimization studies to find the optimum in the plasma control parameter set of HCDs. The technique developed in this study for HCDs can be applied to glow discharges in general.