Abstract
The laser Thomson scattering technique has been applied for measuring the spatiotemporal changes in the electron density (n(e)) and electron temperature (T-e) of a capacity-coupled micro-discharge generated in neon gas at near-atmospheric pressure. A significant difference has been observed in temporal behavior between n(e) and T-e after the discharge generation. The value of n(e) decreases monotonically from t = 25 ns when the electrical input is truncated. On the other hand, T-e is approximately 1.7 eV at 15 ns and, after this point, T-e rapidly decreases to about 0.8 eV. Subsequently, T-e decreases gradually. These features are discussed on the basis of the recombination processes. (C) 2015 The Japan Society of Applied Physics