Study of shock waves interacting with Ar and N2 low pressure dc discharges

G. Cicala; D. Bruno; M. Capitelli; S. Longo; A. C. Rainò

doi:10.1140/epjd/e2010-00066-y

EPJ

Study of shock waves interacting with Ar and N₂ low pressure dc discharges

G. Cicala¹, D. Bruno¹, M. Capitelli², S. Longo² and A. C. Rainò³

¹ IMIP-CNR (Istituto di Metodologie Inorganiche e dei Plasmi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), via Amendola 122/D, 70126 Bari, Italy
² Dipartimento di Chimica, University of Bari, via E. Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Fisica/INFN Sezione di Bari, University of Bari, via E. Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy

Received: 30 July 2009
Revised: 18 January 2010
Published online: 16 March 2010

Abstract

Acoustical shock waves (Mach number <2) generated in situ by spark gap are propagated in weakly ionized dc discharges working at low pressure (399 Pa) and containing either Ar or N₂ gas. The electrical characterization and the laser deflection technique are used to measure the characteristics of dc discharge (such as voltage, resistance and power of discharge) and the structure and velocity of shock wave, respectively. The results stress the importance of atomic and molecular nature of the gases in affecting the power deposition and the shock wave properties.