Conditions for the Deposition of Surface Micro-Nanostructures of Silver and Zinc from the Plasma of an Overvoltage Nanosecond Discharge in Argon

The spatial, electrical, and spectral characteristics of an overvoltage nanosecond discharge between silver and zinc electrodes in atmospheric pressure argon are presented. In the process of microexplosions of natural inhomogeneities on the surfaces of metal electrodes in a strong electric field, silver and zinc vapours are introduced into the gap between the electrodes during the formation of ectons. This creates prerequisites for the formation of excited atoms and ions of silver, zinc, and argon. When plasma products are deposited on a quartz substrate installed near the electrode system, it is possible to synthesize surface structures based on silver and zinc, which are promising for use in micronanoelectronics, medicine, and biomedical engineering. The spatial characteristics of the discharge and the voltage and current pulses across the discharge gap are established, which made it possible to obtain the discharge pulse power and the energy contribution per pulse. The spectral characteristics of the discharge are studied from the central part of the 2 mm discharge gap. The main excited components of the plasma of gas-vapour mixtures based on silver and zinc vapours with argon at high values of the parameter E / N ( E is the electric field strength and N is the total concentration of particles in the plasma) are established.