  We apply particle based kinetic simulations to explore the characteristics of
a low-pressure gas discharge driven by high-voltage ( $\sim$ kV) pulses with
alternating polarity, with a duty cycle of $\approx$ 1% and a repetition rate
of 5 kHz. The computations allow tracing the spatio-temporal development of
several discharge characteristics, the potential and electric field
distributions, charged particle densities and fluxes, the mean ion energy at
the electrode surfaces, etc. As such discharges have important surface
processing applications, e.g. in the treatment of artificial bones, we analyse
the time-dependence of the flux and the mean energy of the ions reaching the
electrode surfaces, which can be both conducting and dielectric. Our
investigations are conducted for argon buffer gas in the 40-140 Pa pressure
range, for 1-5 cm electrode gaps and voltage pulse amplitudes ranging between
600 V and 1200 V.
