Double Layers in Plasmas

Propagating double layers in electronegative plasmas

Double layers have been observed to propagate from the source region to the diffusion chamber of a helicon-type reactor filled up with a low-pressure mixture of Ar/SF6 N. Plihon et al., J. Appl. Phys. 98, 023306 2005 . In the present paper the most significant and new experimental results are reported. A fully self-consistent hybrid model in which the electron energy distribution function, the ...

Waves in expanding electronegative plasmas containing double layers

Expanding electronegative EN plasmas have been previously observed, experimentally, to generate wave activity. Using a particle-in-cell PIC code we have investigated these waves in expanding EN plasmas containing a double layer DL between an upstream source region and an expanded downstream region. Oxygen reaction rates were used but modified to correspond more closely to experimental condition...

Experimental investigation of double layers in expanding plasmas

Double layers DLs have been observed in a plasma reactor composed of a source chamber attached to a larger expanding chamber. Positive ion beams generated across the DL were characterized in the low plasma potential region using retarding field energy analyzers. In electropositive gases, DLs were formed at very low pressures between 0.1 and 1 mTorr with the plasma expansion forced by a strongly...

Ion acoustic waves and double-layers in electronegative expanding plasmas

Filamentary double layers

The properties of double layers produced in current filaments have been studied. The experiments were performed in a magnetized triple plasma device in which the diameter of the central plasma column could be varied. The scaling of the double layer potential drop I’,, with the parameter jd’, where j is the current density in the double layer and d is the double layer thickness, was determined f...