Optical and Electrical Characteristics of AC Glow Discharge Plasma in N$_{2}$O

This paper considers the optical and electrical characterization of AC glow discharge plasma in the abnormal glow mode used for optical emission spectroscopy. The total discharge current and applied voltage are measured using conventional techniques. Optical emission spectroscopy was used to determine the main emission lines of the glow discharge plasma of $N_{2}O$ at pressures between $0.5$ and $4.0 Torr$. It shows that the discharge emission range is mainly within $300-400$ $nm$. The emission lines at $315.98$, $337.55$, $354.20$, $357.24$, $380.09$ and $391.42$ $nm$ corresponding to $NO$, $O_{2}$, and $O_{2}^{+}$ are the dominant lines in the glow discharge plasma in the present study. Intensity of the emission lines show linear increase with the discharge current up to $0.6$ $A$ followed by saturation at higher currents. The emission consists of $NO$, $O_{2}^{+}$ and $O_{2}$ narrow peaks. No emission lines were identified with the atomic oxygen leading us to conclude that the atomic oxygen is produced either in the $O(^{5}S)$ state that is sufficiently energetics and most likely is lost collisionally, or produced in its ground state $O(^{3}P)$ or themetastable state $O(^{1}D)$ that is quenched in collisions with $N_{2}$ resulting in $O(^{3}P)$ .