Particles as probes for complex plasmas in front of biased surfaces

An interesting aspect in the research of complex (dusty) plasmas is the experimental study of the interaction of micro-particles with the surrounding plasma for diagnostic purposes. Local electric fields can be determined from the behaviour of particles in the plasma, e.g. particles may serve as electrostatic probes. Since in many cases of applications in plasma technology it is of great interest to describe the electric field conditions in front of floating or biased surfaces, the confinement and behaviour of test particles is studied in front of floating walls inserted into a plasma as well as in front of additionally biased surfaces. For the latter case, the behaviour of particles in front of an adaptive electrode, which allows for an efficient confinement and manipulation of the grains, has been experimentally studied in dependence on the discharge parameters and on different bias conditions of the electrode. The effect of the partially biased surface (dc, rf) on the charged micro-particles has been investigated by particle falling experiments. In addition to the experiments we also investigate the particle behaviour numerically by molecular dynamics, in combination with a fluid and particle-in-cell description of the plasma.Comment: 39 pages, 16 figures, submitted to New J. Phy

Electron power absorption dynamics in capacitive radio frequency discharges driven by tailored voltage waveforms in CF4

The power absorption dynamics of electrons and the electrical asymmetry effect in capacitive radio-frequency plasmas operated in CF4 and driven by tailored voltage waveforms are investigated experimentally in combination with kinetic simulations. The driving voltage waveforms are generated as a superposition of multiple consecutive harmonics of the fundamental frequency of 13.56 MHz. Peaks/valleys and sawtooth waveforms are used to study the effects of amplitude and slope asymmetries of the driving voltage waveform on the electron dynamics and the generation of a DC self-bias in an electronegative plasma at different pressures. Compared to electropositive discharges, we observe strongly different effects and unique power absorption dynamics. At high pressures and high electronegativities, the discharge is found to operate in the drift-ambipolar (DA) heating mode. A dominant excitation/ionization maximum is observed during sheath collapse at the edge of the sheath which collapses fastest. High negative-ion densities are observed inside this sheath region, while electrons are confined for part of the RF period in a potential well formed by the ambipolar electric field at this sheath edge and the collapsed (floating potential) sheath at the electrode. For specific driving voltage waveforms, the plasma becomes divided spatially into two different halves of strongly different electronegativity. This asymmetry can be reversed electrically by inverting the driving waveform. For sawtooth waveforms, the discharge asymmetry and the sign of the DC self-bias are found to reverse as the pressure is increased, due to a transition of the electron heating mode from the α-mode to the DA-mode. These effects are interpreted with the aid of the simulation results

Deghosting, demultiple, and deblurring in controlled-source seismic interferometry

With controlled-source seismic interferometry we aim to redatum sources to downhole receiver locations without requiring a velocity model. Interferometry is generally based on a source integral over cross-correlation (CC) pairs of full, perturbed (time-gated), or decomposed wavefields. We provide an overview of ghosts, multiples, and spatial blurring effects that can occur for different types of interferometry. We show that replacing cross-correlation by multidimensional deconvolution (MDD) can deghost, demultiple, and deblur retrieved data. We derive and analyze MDD for perturbed and decomposed wavefields. An interferometric point spread function (PSF) is introduced that can be obtained directly from downhole data. Ghosts, multiples, and blurring effects that may populate the retrieved gathers can be locally diagnosed with the PSF. MDD of perturbed fields can remove ghosts and deblur retrieved data, but it leaves particular multiples in place. To remove all overburden-related effects, MDD of decomposed fields should be applied.Applied Geophysics and PetrophysicsCivil Engineering and Geoscience