Monte carlo simulation of the suppression of the glow-to-arc transition via dielectric wall effects

Summary form only given. There has been a growing interest in atmospheric pressure microplasmas in recent years. The driving factor is the potential that these systems can deliver the enhanced chemical activity of traditional low pressure plasma system without the added labor, expense, and inconvenience of setting up and preforming experiments in a vacuum system. In an effort to better understand the mechanism which suppresses the glow-to-arc transition in these systems, our plasma model is a Monte Carlo simulation that tracks the evolution of a growing assembly of particles interacting with a background gas, the reactor\´s surfaces, an applied field and other particles in the assembly. Our results will show how the charge buildup on the dielectric surfaces moderate the applied field and effectively "switches the applied field off" after sufficient charge has accumulated on the surfaces