Effects of secondary electron emission coefficients on Townsend's second ionization coefficient in argon dielectric barrier discharges

One‐dimensional fluid model simulations are performed to investigate how the secondary electron emission arising from ions (γ_i), metastable atoms (γ_m), and photons (γ_p) affect Townsend's second ionization coefficient (γ′) in argon dielectric barrier discharges. Since Townsend's breakdown criterion determines the value of γ′, it is naturally affected by the discharge condition such as the reduced electric field (E/p) as well as the combination of γ_i, γ_m, and γ_p. It also depends on the other contributions from the indirect ionization processes such as cumulative ionizations or metastable–metastable collision ionizations. When the nonionic electron‐yielding processes such as the effects of γ_m, γ_p, and the indirect ionizations are considered, the calculated γ′ increases largely under the higher pd (pressure times distance) branch of the Paschen curve. Since the experimental characteristics of γ′, which decreases with E/p, can hardly be explained without such nonionic processes, the contributions of those processes can be quite important in Townsend discharges especially under high pd conditions. These processes tend not to appear and γ′ tends to converge to γ_i under the lower pd branch of the Paschen curve. The value of γ_i can possibly be estimated by using γ′ under the lower pd condition. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.