Study of the biased-disc effect using Langmuir-probes inserted in the hot region of the electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) plasma

The plasma potential and its distribution play an important role in the highly-charged ion production and it is an important parameter of the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma. Emitting probes have been successfully used to determine plasma potential distributions in many plasma machines. In the framework of the ATOMKI-ECRIS plasma diagnostics research project, plasma-induced emitting probe was developed. It was proved that in certain conditions such probes could be reliably used without being damaged and without disturbing the plasma. Important observations were made related to the biased-disc effect. In favor of establishing the method of emitting probe usage in ECR plasma, dedicated experiments were performed at the NIRS-Kei2 all permanent compact ECR ion source. Based on the experiences gained after the NIRS experiments, the ATOMKI plasma-induced probe measurements could be interpreted. It was shown that biasing the Disc electrode negatively with respect to the source potential, the plasma potential measured on the resonant zone decreased, while the well-known ion beam current increase was obtained. This result proves the previous assumption [K.E. Stiebing, O. Hohn, S. Runkel, L. Schmidt, H. Schmidt-Böcking, V. Mironov, G. Shirkov, Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 2 (1999) 123501], that the biased-disc changes the plasma potential distribution creating favorable conditions for ion beam extraction.     

Diagnostics for radial electric field measurements in hot magnetized plasmas

Measurements of the radial electric field profile in magnetically confined plasmas have yielded important new insights in the physics of L-H transitions, edge biasing and/or the active control of Internal and Edge Transport Barriers. The radial electric field is not an easy plasma parameter to diagnose. Techniques to measure the radial electric field in the plasma core are the Heavy Ion Beam Probe and the Motional Stark Effect. An indirect method that is quite often applied is to derive the electric field from measurements of the poloidal and toroidal rotation velocities via the radial ion force balance. This paper will first briefly explain the need for detailed measurements of the radial electric field profile. Subsequently, the various diagnostics to measure this parameter will be reviewed. The emphasis will be especially put on recent trends, rather than on an exhaustive overview. Presented at 5th Workshop “Role of Electric Fields in Plasma Confinement and Exhaust”, Montreux, Switzerland, June 23–24, 2002. Partner in the Trilateral Euregio Cluster     

A probe-based method for measuring the transport coefficient in the tokamak edge region

A new method for measuring the diffusion coefficient in the edge plasma of fusion devices is presented. The method is based on studying the decay of the plasma fluctuation spectrum inside a small ceramic tube having its mouth flush with a magnetic surface and its axis aligned along the radial direction. The plasma fluctuations are detected by an electrode, radially movable inside the tube. In the experiment described herein, which was performed in the edge region of the CASTOR tokamak, the electrode measured the floating potential. The experimental arrangement is the same used for the direct plasma potential measurements according to the “Ball-pen probe” [1], the design of which is based on the Katsumata probe principle. When the electrode protrudes from the tube, the measured signal shows the floating potential fluctuations of the plasma. Retracting the electrode into the tube, the signal power spectrum displays a decay. This decay is different for different frequencies, and is exponential. Assuming a mainly diffusive behaviour of the plasma inside the tube, the spectrum decay length can be used to derive a value of the diffusion coefficient. The measurement were performed at different radial positions in the CASTOR edge region, so that a radial profile of the diffusion coefficient was obtained. Typical values ofD are of (2–3) m²/s, consistent with expectations from the global particle balance. The radial profile shows a tendency of the diffusion coefficient to increase going deeper into the plasma.     

Effect of electron emission and potential perturbations of a hot filament in high voltage pulsed glow discharge

The high voltage dc pulsed glow discharge can be ignited earlier by putting an electron emitting filament in the plasma chamber. The electrons emitted from the filament act as a seed and can cause earlier ignition. The potential of the hot filament shows some periodic positive perturbations (electron loss signals) when it is kept floating in the plasma chamber. It is observed that the positive perturbations disappear as potential difference between the plasma and the filament is made smaller by directly connecting the filament to the grounded chamber.     

Study of the plasmas produced during the deposition of TiC/SiC thin films in a hybrid magnetron-laser system

Time- and spatially-resolved optical emission spectroscopy was performed to characterize the plasma produced in a hybrid magnetron-sputtering-laser deposition system, which is used for TiC or SiC thin films preparation. A graphite target was ablated by a KrF excimer laser (λ=248 nm,τ=20 ns) and either Ti or Si targets were used for DC magnetron sputtering in argon ambient. Spectra were measured in the range 250–850 nm. The evolution of the spectra with varying magnetron powers (0–100 W) and argon pressures (0.3–10 Pa) was studied. Spectra of the plasmas produced by a) the magnetron alone, b) the ablation laser alone, and c) the magnetron and the ablation laser together, were recorded. Spectra (a) were dominated by Ar atoms and Ar⁺ ions. Emission lines of Ti and Si were detected, when Ti target and Si target was used, respectively. Spectra (b) revealed emission of C, C⁺, C₂, Ar, Ar⁺. Spectra (c) showed presence of all previously mentioned species and further of Ti⁺ ions emission was detected. The research was supported by Grant Agency of the Czech Republic No. 202/06/02161, GA ASCR project number A1010110/01 and Institutional Research Plan AV CR No. AV0Z 10100522.     

Optical diagnostics for temperature measurement in a DC arcjet reactor used for diamond deposition

2 a-state in this plume. LIF measurements of CH are complicated by the presence of C₃ and we discuss strategies to deal with this interference. The gas temperature describing the rotational distributions obtained for NO, C₂ and CH agree within experimental error. Optical emission measurements indicate that the rotational and vibrational distributions of the excited A-state of CH and a-state of C₂ are characterized by vibrational and rotational populations which are at least 1000 K above the ground state distributions. The excited states are collisionally quenched before their population distributions equilibrate with the gas temperature. We also determine relative populations of the ground and excited states along the axis of the plume between the arcjet nozzle and the substrate and relative populations for a cross section of the jet, midway between the nozzle orifice and the substrate. The measured relative ground and excited state populations for both CH and C₂ show different trends along the plume axis, indicating that the ground and excited states of these molecules are products of different chemical mechanisms; such mechanisms are discussed. Received: 16 July 1996/Revised version: 24 September 1996     

Theoretical and Experimental Study of Scattering of a Plane Wave by an Inhomogeneous Plasma Sphere

Scattering of electromagnetic waves by an inhomogeneous plasma sphere has been studied theoretically and experimentally. The offset angles of electromagnetic waves caused by the plasma sphere have been observed experimentally. The effects of the electromagnetic wave frequency and plasma density on the offset angle are discussed. The plasma density is estimated with the offset angle.     

Investigations on ionic processes and dynamics in the sheath region of helium and hydrogen discharges by laser spectroscopic electric field measurements

Temporally and spatially resolved measurements of the electric field distribution in the sheath region of RF and dc discharges provide a detailed insight into the sheath and ion dynamics. The electric field is directly related to the sheath ion and electron densities, the sheath voltage, and the displacement current density. Under certain assumptions also the electron and ion conduction current densities at the electrode, the ion current density into the sheath from the plasma bulk, the ion energy distribution function, and the power dissipated in the discharge can be inferred. Furthermore, the electric field distribution can give an indication of the collision-induced conversion between different ion species in the sheath. Laser spectroscopic techniques allow the noninvasive in situ measurement of the electric field with high spatial and temporal resolution. These techniques are based on the spectroscopic measurement of the Stark splitting of Rydberg states of helium and hydrogen atoms. Two alternative techniques are applied to RF discharges at 13.56 MHz in helium and hydrogen and a pulsed dc discharge in hydrogen. The measured electric field profiles are analyzed, and the results discussed with respect to the ion densities, currents, energies, temporal dynamics and species composition. Received: 26 July 2000 / Accepted: 12 December 2000 / Published online: 3 April 2001     

Experimental investigation of discharge characteristics in enhanced glow discharge plasma immersion ion implantation

In enhanced glow discharge plasma immersion ion implantation (EGD-PIII) that involves a small pointed anode and large area tabular cathode, the high negative substrate bias not only acts as the plasma producer but also supplies the implantation voltage. Consequently, an electric field is created to focus the electrons and the electron focusing field in turn enhances the glow discharge process. In this work, the discharge characteristics of EGD-PIII are investigated experimentally. The discharge initiation and extinction characteristics during pulsed biasing are discussed. The duration of the post pulse-off plasma is explained from the viewpoint of particle motion and experimentally verified by employing an auxiliary disk. Our experiments show that a dual-pulse method may be utilized to determine the remnant plasma.     

Diagnostics for first plasma study on EAST tokamak

The first plasma was obtained in the EAST on September 26th, 2006. Single-null (SN) and double-null (DN) diverted plasmas were achieved successfully in the EAST tokamak on January 22nd, 2007. The employed plasma diagnostics for first plasma study of EAST are as follows: a vertical one-channel far-infrared (FIR) hydrogen cyanide (HCN) laser interferometer for measuring the line average density, a 10-channel soft X-ray array for intensity measurement, a 16-channel heterodyne Electron Cyclotron Emission (ECE) for measuring the electron temperature profile, a 8-channel XUV bolometer array to measure plasma radiation losses, a 3-channel hard X-ray array for intensity measurement, an electromagnetic measurement system, a 35-channel Hα radiation array, 20 probes for divertor plasma, a one-channel visible bremsstrahlung emission, an impurity optical spectrum measurement system and two optical spectroscopic multi-channel analyzers (OMA). The first experimental results of diagnostic systems are summarized in this Letter.     

A computer model of particle balance in ECR ion sources

The investigation of the widespread model of particle balance and energy transport [1–5] for calculating the ion charge state distribution (CSD) in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source [6] is given. The modification of this model that makes it possible to describe the confinement and accumulation processes of highly charged ions in ECR plasma for the case of gas mixing is more precisely discussed. The discussion of the new technique for calculating the time confinement of ions and electrons, which is based on the Pastukhov theory [7, 8], is given: calculation of confinement times during two step minimization of special type functionals. The preliminary results obtained with this approach have been compared with available experimental data. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Growth of electron energies with ion beam injection in a double plasma device

This paper reports about the observed energy growth of both high and low energetic electron species in the target plasma region with the increase in plasma potential in the source region of a double plasma device. This situation can be correlated to the injection of an ion beam from source to target plasma region. Plasma is solely produced in the source region and a low-density diffuse plasma is generated in the target region by local ionization between the neutral gas and the high energetic electrons coming from the source region. The growth of electron energy is accompanied by a decrease in diffuse plasma density. It is observed that although energy of high energetic group increases with the injected beam energy, the diffuse plasma density falls due to their decreasing population.     

VUV-spectroscopy of the plasma light emission generated by the pulsed arc cluster ion source (PACIS)

A pinhole grid spectrometer is used to measure the light emission from the plasma of the pulsed arc cluster ion source (PACIS). Spectra of various metals and carbon have been measured between 20 and 100 nm. In the case of carbon the average electron temperature is estimated to about 0.69 eV. Higher temperatures up to 0.79 eV are measured when inserting seeding gas which flushes the discharge volume with approx. one atmosphere of helium. An operation under this source conditions leads to the generation of an intense charged cluster beam. The application of the source as a bright light source in the VUV region is discussed. Received: 26 February 1998 / Revised: 12 May 1998 / Accepted: 14 May 1998     

Measurements of electron density and Stark width of neutral helium lines in a helium arc plasma

Electron densities in an atmospheric helium arc plasma have been measured with the Stark broadening parameters of helium spectral lines. The spatially distributed radiation intensities are converted to plasma emission coefficients at every wavelength by means of Abel inversion. From the inverted profiles of He I lines of 4713 ?, 5016 ?, and 6678 ? electron density has been calculated, which ranges from 0.5 ×10¹⁶ to 4 ×10¹⁶ cm^-3 for a helium arc with current 200 A. Stark widths of He I lines of 3889 ? and 7065 ? are determined based on the measurements and compared with existing data.     

Electron temperature measurement in a surface-wave-produced argon plasma at intermediate pressures

The main objective of this work is to obtain the electron temperature in an argon surface-wave-produced plasma column at intermediate gas pressures. After proving that argon upper excited states remain in Excitation Saturation Balance, the value of electron temperature along the plasma column has been obtained using a modified Saha equation and a corrected Boltzmann-plot. Moreover, the electron energy distribution function has been verified to be nearly Maxwellian in a 0.8-2.8 torr intermediate pressure range. Received 24 July 2000 and Received in final form 19 January 2001     

Langmuir probe and spectroscopic studies of RF generated helium-nitrogen mixture plasma

This paper reports the effect of helium percentage variation in a capacitive RF helium-nitrogen mixture plasma on various plasma parameters and concentration of nitrogen active species (N₂(C³Π _u) and N₂ ⁺(B²Σ _u ⁺)). Langmuir probe is used for determination of electron energy distribution functions, effective electron temperature, plasma potential and electron density. Optical emission spectroscopy is used for determination of electron temperature from Boltzmann's plot of He–I lines and the relative changes in the concentration of active species by measuring the emission intensities of nitrogen (0-0) bands of the second positive and the first negative systems. The results demonstrate that electron temperature, electron density and concentration of active species increase significantly with increase in helium percentage in the mixture and RF power.     

Mass spectrometry of arcs in SF6 circuit breakers

Today, SF₆ is used to a great extent as insulating and arc-quenching medium in high-voltage gas-blast circuit breakers. The arcing in SF₆ during current interruption forms decomposition products. These can influence the arc-quenching properties of the circuit breaker. Furthermore, they can cause corrosion of the circuit breaker housing. In this comprehensive study we present results obtained for the first time from a direct mass spectrometric investigation of the exhaust gases of a high pressure SF₆ arc in a model circuit breaker. Our mass spectrometric system consists of a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS) equipped with a molecular beam sampling systems. This device allows us to measure mass spectra of high pressure sources with a time resolution of up to 10,000 spectra per second. We have determined the formation rate of the most abundant decomposition products in a SF₆ arc at 1 bar. These products are SF₄, CF₄, WF₆, SOF₂, SO₂, CS₂ S₂F₂ and HF. The fast detection time inherent to our system permits also the determination of the formation of SF₄, which is 0.45–0.50 Vol. %/(kJ/1SF₆). In addition, we have studied the influence of water and oxygen impurities which are responsible for the production of highly corrosive HF. Finally, we have considered the influence of the thermal degradation of teflon (P.T.F.E.), which is used as nozzle and insulating material in circuit breakers. On this occasion we have demonstrated that CF₄, which exhibits dielectric properties similar to SF₆, is the main decomposition product formed from teflon. However, we have found that besides CF₄ also excess carbon is formed, which is deposited on insulators of the model circuit breaker.Our time-resolved mass spectra reveal that the CF₄ production from teflon is delayed by a few milliseconds with respect to the SF₆ dissociation in the arc. This delay can influence the interrupting process of the circuit breaker by changing the plasma composition during the arcing period. Although our experiments have been performed on a model circuit breaker we claim that the results presented in this study can be applied to real circuit breakers, since the arc current density and the energy dissipated per liter SF₆ are of the same order of magnitude in both devices.     

Statistical properties of turbulence in a toroidal magnetized ECR plasma

The statistical analyses of fluctuation data measured by electrostatic-probe arrays clearly show that the self-organized criticality (SOC) avalanches are not the dominant behaviors in a toroidal ECR plasma in the SMT (Simple Magnetic Torus) mode of KT-5D device. The f⁻¹ index region in the auto-correlation spectra of the floating potential Vf and the ion saturation current Is, which is a fingerprint of a SOC system, ranges only in a narrow frequency band. By investigating the Hurst exponents at increasingly coarse grained time series, we find that at a time scale of τ>100 μs, there exists no or a very weak long-range correlation over two decades in τ. The difference between the PDFs of Is and Vf clearly shows a more global nature of the latter. The transport flux induced by the turbulence suggests that the natural intermittency of turbulent transport maybe independent of the avalanche induced by near criticality. The drift instability is dominant in a SMT plasma generated by means of ECR discharges.     

Spectroscopic observation of the plasma produced by a CO2 laser beam interacting with titanium target under helium and/or argon atmosphere

In many laser applications such as drilling, welding and cutting, the role of the plasma in the transfer of energy between the laser beam and the metal surface appears to be rather important. It depends on several parameters such as laser wavelength, irradiation time and deposited energy but especially on the buffer gas nature. In this work the plasma is initiated by a TEA-CO₂ laser beam perpendicularly focussed onto a Ti target (100 MW/cm²), in a cell containing He, Ar or a He-Ar mixture as buffer gas. The plasma is studied by time and space resolved spectroscopic diagnostics. The results show that helium allows target erosion whereas a highly absorbing breakdown plasma develops in argon shielding the target from the subsequent laser heating. With only 20% Ar in He, a strong quenching of the He plasma by Ar occurs, and the Ar plasma effect is dominant.