Acoustic perturbations in a pulsedRF-plasma

The response of a stationary weakly ionized plasma to a density perturbation in the neutral gas component was studied in a neon plasma with the following typical properties: electron density ¯N _e≈8×10¹² cm^?3, electron temperature on the axis of the vesselT _e0≈3.0 eV; neutral gas densityN _n≈1×10¹⁷cm^?3 and neutral gas temperatureT _n0≈600 °K. A neutral density perturbation, generated 50 cm apart from the plasma, produces a fluctuation in the ion density and a sharp spike in the differential voltage of a floating double probe. The experimental observations demonstrate the propagation of an ion sheath and of an electric field perturbation together with the neutral density perturbation. An interpretation of the plasma response to acoustic wave pulses has been proposed by Ingard and Schulz in a theory on acoustic wave modes in a weakly ionized gas. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical expectations.