Ion beam formation in a low-pressure geometrically expanding argon plasma

Supersonic ion beam formation has been observed in a geometrically expanding low-pressure inductively coupled argon plasma. It is found that the ion beam is only observed below 3 mTorr and only when the discharge is operated in inductive mode. The geometrical expansion of the plasma induces density and potential gradients leading to the ion beam formation. The ion beam energy increases with decreasing source tube radius. The results show that ion beam formation can be achieved by geometrical expansion alone and that the ion beam energy depends on the ratio of the cross-sectional area of the source and expansion region. © 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2823575