A Probe Method for Determination of time Evolution of Metastable Atoms Density in a Flowing Afterglow Plasma

The Langmuir Probe Measurement of the electron density and electron temperature has been made in the argon flowing afterglow plasma. Furthermore the metastable and charged particle densities evolution in the afterglow plasma are investigated by means of a numerical solution of the set of balance equations. From the fitting of the results of these calculations to the experimental data obtained from Langmuir probe measurements it is possible to determine the evolution of the metastable atoms density in the flowing afterglow plasma.     

The study of a homogeneous column of argon plasma at a pressure of 0.5 torr,generated by means of the Beenakker’s cavity

A homogeneous column of argon plasma at a pressure of 0.5 torr, generated by means of the Beenakker cavity, has been investigated by methods of emission spectroscopy, photography and self-consistent 3D modeling in a nonlocal approximation. It is shown that the plasma column, which spreads beyond the resonator, is spatially uniform and it represents the afterglow of the microwave discharge produced inside the cavity. The simulation data of the spatial distributions of the electron energy density and concentrations of electrons, ions and argon atoms in metastable and radiating states are presented. The results of calculations are in agreement with experimental data.     

Effect of diluent gas on silicon film deposition from a free jet of monosilane-diluent mixture activated by electron-beam plasma

Thin silicon films were synthesized by the gas-jet electron beam plasma chemical vapor deposition method from monosilane-argon, monosilane-argon-helium, and monosilane-argon-hydrogen mixtures. Addition of argon to the argon-silane mixture increased the deposition rate of silicon films, whereas addition of helium and hydrogen to the same mixture decreased the growth rate. It is shown that the process of silicon film deposition by this method from argon-monosilane mixture is primarily governed by fast secondary electrons, and argon dilution of mixture leads to increasing concentration of fast secondary electrons and increasing deposition rate of silicon films. Dilution of the initial mixture with helium or hydrogen causes a decrease in the deposition rate either due to gas-dynamic behavior of the supersonic jet of the mixture of light and heavy gases, or due to the etching effect of metastable helium atoms or hydrogen atoms on the surface of the growing silicon film.     

Dusty photoresonant plasma with coulomb collisions

We have studied the charging of dust particles in a dense photoresonant sodium plasma with electron and ion densities as high as 10¹⁶ cm^?3 produced by laser pumping of the resonance level of Na, which was a small admixture (up to 1%) in an argon buffer gas. We show that the charge of dust particles with a radius of 10 mm at maximum reaches 3 × 10⁵ electron charges and that the potential of the dust particles at a low electron bulk loss rate agrees well with the orbital motion limited (OML) model data. The behavior of the electric field near a dust particle was found to be nonmonotonic. We established that the distribution of the potential near a solitary charged dust particle agrees well with the Debye one, but the screening length proves to be much larger than even the electron Debye length; the discrepancies are largest at the afterglow stage of the photoresonant plasma, when the sodium ion with a low recombination coefficient is the main plasma ion. We determined the domain of parameters for a dense plasma where an ensemble of dust particles can crystallize.     

Metastable states of dust plasma

The free energy of three-component dust plasma has been calculated analytically based on the spherical model of an elementary electroneutral volume. It has been shown that metastable states of dust particles, ions, and simultaneously all plasma particles can exist for finite interparticle distances. These states can be attained due to spatial correlation of electrons, while some states can be attained due to the correlation of ions. A large charge of dust particles, high electron temperature, and a small fraction of the charge of the electrons compared to the total absolute charge of the plasma particles are important conditions for the existence of metastable states. A possible connection between the existence of metastable states of particles in the plasma and their agglomeration has been analyzed.     

流体-亚稳态原子传输混合模型模拟空心阴极放电特性

利用流体-亚稳态原子传输混合模型研究了氩气矩形空心阴极放电稳态时的参数. 数值计算得到了压强为10 Torr时的电势、电子、离子和亚稳态氩原子密度以及电子平均能量的分布. 结果表明电子和离子密度峰值为4.7×10¹² cm^-3, 亚稳态原子密度峰值为2.1×10¹³ cm^-3. 本文同时对流体-亚稳态原子传输混合模型和单一流体模型模拟得到的放电参数进行了比较. 结果表明, 分步电离是新电子产生的重要来源, 亚稳态原子对空心阴极放电特性有重要影响. 与单一流体模型相比, 混合模型计算得到的电子密度升高, 阴极鞘层宽度和电子平均能量降低. 关键词： 空心阴极放电 流体-亚稳态原子传输模型 电子密度 分步电离     

脉冲射频容性耦合氩等离子体的发射探针诊断

利用工作在浮点模式下的发射探针,对500 Hz脉冲调制的27.12 MHz容性耦合氩气等离子体的空间电位和电子温度的时变特性进行了诊断.等离子体空间电位是通过测量强热状态下的发射探针电位获得的,而电子温度则是由发射探针在冷、热状态下的电位差来估算得到.测量结果表明:脉冲开启时,空间电位会快速上升并在300μs内趋于饱和;当脉冲关断后,空间电位经历了快速下降后趋于稳定的过程.电子温度在脉冲开启时存在过冲并趋于稳定的特征;而在脉冲关断期间,电子温度在300μs内则快速下降到0.45 e V后略有上升.无论在脉冲开启或关断期间,空间电位基本上都随功率和气压的变化存在有线性的依赖关系;而放电功率对脉冲开启期间过冲电子温度与稳态电子温度差异的影响较大.针对空间电位和电子温度在各阶段及不同放电条件下的时变特性,给出了相应的解释.     

甚高频激发容性耦合氩等离子体的电子能量分布函数的演变

甚高频激发的容性耦合等离子体由于离子通量和能量的相对独立可控而受到人们的关注. 本文采用朗缪尔探针诊断技术测量了40.68 MHz激发的容性耦合Ar等离子体的特性(如电子能量概率分布、电子温度和密度等)随宏观参量的演变情况. 实验结果表明, 电子能量概率分布随着气压的增加从双麦克斯韦分布逐步转变为单麦克斯韦分布并最终演变为Druyvesteyn分布, 而射频激发功率的增加促进了低能电子布居数的增强; 在从等离子体放电中心移向边界的过程中, 低能电子的布居数显著下降, 而高能电子的布居则有所上升; 放电极板间距的变化直接导致了等离子体中电子加热模式的转变. 另外, 我们也对等离子体中的高低能电子密度和温度的分配情况进行了讨论.     

Electron temperature in a decaying krypton plasma in the presence of a low electric field

The influence of low electric fields on the average electron energy in an afterglow krypton plasma is studied by means of probe diagnostics and theoretical analysis. It is shown that, when the average electron energy is lower than the energy corresponding to the minimum scattering transport cross section, the degree of plasma ionization substantially affects the shape of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF). The nonequlibrium character of the EEDF results in the density dependence of the coefficient of ambipolar diffusion, which leads to a change in the radial profile of the charged particle density, an increase in the drop in the ambipolar potential across the plasma, and an increase in the rate of diffusive plasma decay. These effects substantially enhance the diffusive cooling of electrons, which is probably a decisive factor influencing the electron energy balance in high-Z noble gases.     

Potential of an insulated electrode in a high-energy electron flow under a gas pressure of 0.1–1.0 Pa

We analyze the variation of the floating potential of an insulated metallic electrode in a flow of electrons with an energy of up to 300 eV under a gas pressure of 0.1–1.0 Pa at a current density lower than 0.1 A/cm². It is shown that the dependence of the floating potential on the initial electron energy is non-monotonic; this fact is explained by the variation of the ratio of the ion current density to the density of fast electron current in the plasma. The balance of the electron and ion currents on the surface of an insulated electrode is ensured by the cutoff of the low-energy part of the electron flow at the level determined by the magnitude of the floating potential. The maximal value of the floating potential increases upon a decrease in the gas pressure; this is due to a decrease in the ion current density. The interval of energy variation in which the floating potential decreases from the maximal value (50–250 eV) to 5–6 eV increases with the electron current density and the gas pressure. The electrode material and the type of the gas do not noticeably affect the variation of the floating potential.     

Dust in Plasma II. Effects of Secondary Electrons: Ionization and Surface Emission

In this second paper, the effect of secondary electrons on the charge and potential of a dust particle immersed in plasma has been studied. The processes of electron‐induced ionization and those of photo‐electron and secondary electron emission from the particle surface as a function of primary electron temperature have been taken into account. Starting from temperatures as low as 6 eV in an Ar plasma, ionization produces an extra ion flux to the dust surface comparable to that of the ion charge exchange effect. For what concerns the surface emission, results show that a transition from negative to positive dust charge/potential takes place, and that the transition regime is characterized by a non‐monotonic behavior of the electric potential around the particle. In the case of photoelectric emission, the dust charge and potential are monotonic decreasing functions of the electron temperature, while in the case of emission induced by primary electrons a minimum charge/potential is reached before they grow towards positive values. In no case multiple dust charge states have been observed due to the presence of the potential well attached to the particle surface. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Ultrahigh charging of dust particles in a nonequilibrium plasma

Charging of dust particles in a plasma with the two-temperature energy distribution of electrons has been studied. It has been shown that the dust-particle potential divided by the electron temperature decreases with increasing electron temperature in the plasma with cold ions. Owing to this behavior, the potential of the dustparticle surface increases with the electron temperature more slowly than the linear function and is lower than the electron temperature (divided by the elementary charge) for T _e > 5.5 eV in hydrogen and for T _e > 240 eV in argon. The fraction of fast electrons at which these electrons begin to contribute to the charge of dust particles has been determined. It has been shown that the charge of micron particles can reach 10⁶ elementary charges. The effect of the cold and thermal field emission on the charge of dust particles has been analyzed. The possibility of obtaining ultrahigh charges (to 10⁷ elementary charges on dust particles with a radius of 50–100 μm irradiated by a 25-keV 1-mA electron beam has been demonstrated.     

Modelling of the Positive Column in an Argon-Hexamethyl-disiloxane dc Glow Discharge

A model is presented of the positive column of a dc glow discharge in argon with small admixtures of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDS). The axial electric field, the ion production rates for direct-, stepwise-, pair-, and Penning ionization, the densities of metastable Ar atoms and of electrons, and the wall current of HMDS ions are calculated in dependence on HMDS admixture and discharge current density. For the calculations particle balance equations were used for a diffusion determined plasma in a mixture of two gaseous components. The reaction rates for the electron collision processes were determined applying the electron distribution function calculated for pure argon. Taking into account PENNING ionization of HMDS molecules by metastable argon atoms the decrease of electric field for increasing HMDS admixtures is according to the experimen-tally measured values. Also ion wall currents and electron densities are compared with experimen-tal values for thin film formation rate and results of probe measurements.     

One-dimensional solution to the stable, space-charge-limited emission of secondary electrons from plasma-wall interactions

Numerical solutions to the stable, space-charge-limited emission of secondary electrons from plasma-wall interaction are found based on one-dimensional plasma moment equations that assume cold ions, Maxwellian electrons and cold secondary electrons. The numerical method finds a range of plasma parameters that permit stable emission of secondary electrons in the absence of normal electric fields to the wall. These solutions were not obtained with previous method that solves only for the marginally stable plasma sheath. Range of the ion Mach number at the sheath edge, the floating wall potential relative to the plasmas, and secondary electron emission coefficients corresponding to the vanishing normal electric fields are found for hydrogen, argon and xenon plasmas. The results show that a relatively small range of secondary electron emission coefficient exists to allow stable sheaths structures along with larger ranges of ion injection speed at the sheath edge and floating potential of the emitting wall.     

Nonlinear interaction phenomenon of dust acoustic solitary and shock waves in dusty plasma

The effects of head-on collision on dust acoustic (DA) solitary and shock waves in dusty plasma are investigated considering positively charged inertial dust, Boltzmann distributed negatively charged heavy ions, positively charged light ions, and superthermal electrons in the plasma system. The nonlinear Korteweg-de-Vries (KdV) Burger equations are derived taking the extended Poincaré-Lighthill-Kuo method into account to study the characteristic properties of nonlinearity and production of solitary shock due to collisions. The study reveals that the amplitudes and widths of the DA shock waves are decreasing with increasing viscosity, electron to dust density ratio, and dust to ion temperature ratio, while they are increasing due to the presence of superthermal electrons. The nonlinearity of DA waves are enhanced with increasing density ratio of electron to dust and temperature ratio of dust to ion and electron, respectively, but it is reducing with superthermal electrons. The phase shifts of DA solitary waves are found to decrease with rising superthermality of electrons and increase with the density ratio of electron to dust.     

Langmuir Probe Determination of Charged Particles Density in an rf Discharge

The article presents results of probe measurements of the electron and ion densities in an argon rf discharge. The electron density is determined from the electron probe current at the space potential which is estimated by extrapolation of the linear part of the probe electron current dependence to the plasma potential. The plasma potential is calculated from the floating potential. The positive ion density is determined from the probe ion saturated current according to collisional KOPICZYNSKI and ZAKREWSKI model [1]. The agreement between the electron and ion densities is better than in the work of HOPKINS and GRAHAM [2], where the collisionless Lafram-boise theory is used under similar conditions.     

Numerical study on the characteristics of nitrogen discharge at high pressure with induced plasma

Based on the fluid theory of plasma, a model is built to study the characteristics of nitrogen discharge at high pressure with induced argon plasma. In the model, species such as electrons, N2+, N4+, Ar+, and two metastable states (N 2(A3∑u+), N2 (a1 ∑u-)) are taken into account. The model includes the particle continuity equation, the electron energy balance equation, and Poisson抯equation. The model is solved with a finite difference method. The numerical results are obtained and used to investigate the effect of time taken to add nitrogen gas and initially-induced argon plasma pressure. It is found that lower speeds of adding the nitrogen gas and varying the gas pressure can induce higher plasma density, and inversely lower electron temperature. At high-pressure discharge, the electron density increases when the proportion of nitrogen component is below 40%, while the electron density will keep constant as the nitrogen component further increases. It is also shown that with the increase of initially-induced argon plasma pressure, the density of charged particles increases, and the electron temperature as well as the electric field decreases.     

Peculiarities of plasma decay in the afterglow of a low-pressure pulsed discharge in oxygen

Weakly ionized plasma of a pulsed-discharge afterglow in oxygen at low pressures (0.05–0.15 torr) is investigated using probe diagnostics. The plasma conductivity is measured by supplying an additional probing current pulse at a certain instant during the afterglow. The spectral line intensities are also measured to additionally monitor the densities of charged particles. The measurements of the time behavior of the electron density in an oxygen afterglow plasma confirm the previous conclusion that the electrons escape due to enhanced diffusion, which results in the formation of an ion-ion plasma. The possibility of realizing the opposite ultimate case—the detachment decay regime with an increase in the electron density to the density of positive ions in the first stage and the transition to the electron-ion plasma in the second stage—is demonstrated.     

Two-dimensional images of radiative and metastable excited stateradial profiles for an inductively coupled plasma in argon

Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) was shown to be characterized by a substantial degree of stepwise excitation due to a large density of metastable atoms and an even larger population of electrons. The kinetics of metastables strongly affects the structure of the discharge and we have applied laser absorption spectroscopy to establish the density profile of argon metastables Ar(1s₅) in a single turn coil geometry. At the same time the radial profiles of the radiative Ar(3p₅) state obtained by using a computer-aided tomography are significantly different indicating the effect of electron induced quenching and stepwise processes in kinetics of the two states