Investigation of ion collision effect on electrostatic sheath formation in weakly ionized and weakly collisional plasma

The effects of ion collisions on plasma-sheath formation are investigated experimentally for a low-density and low-pressure discharge. The space potential and ion velocity distribution measurements at high spatial resolution show that the ion collision properties observed in the presheath are maintained in the plasma-sheath transition region. The potential drop in the transition region indicates the existence of ionization as an effect of ion collisions in the transition region owing to the non-negligible density of the electrons penetrating the sheath. Based on comparisons between the space potential measurements and Riemann's presheath-sheath transition solution, the ion collision length lambda (i) was determined as a key parameter in the presheath and transition region. And it represents that the thermal properties of ions and neutral gases affects space potential by the charge exchange and ionization collisions. The existence of the ion collision effect in the transition region suggests possible influence on the incident conditions of ions and electrons near the sheath edge. Consequently, the energy distributions of ions and electrons incident on the material surface facing the sheath are sensitive to the collisionality and operating conditions.N

Population kinetics modeling of low-temperature argon plasma

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Optical emission spectroscopy has been widely used in low-temperature argon plasma diagnostics. A coronal model is usually used to analyze the measured line ratios for diagnostics with a single temperature and density. However, many plasma processing conditions deviate from single temperature and density, optically thin conditions, or even coronal plasma conditions due to cascades from high-lying states. In this paper, we present a collisional-radiative model to investigate the validity of coronal approximations over a range of plasma conditions of Te = 1–4 eV and Ne = 108 –1013 cm−3 . The commonly used line ratios are found to change from a coronal limit where they are independent of Ne to a collisional-radiative regime where they are not. The effects of multiple-temperature plasma, radiation trapping, wall neutralization, and quenching on the line ratios are investigated to identify the plasma conditions under which these effects are significant. This study demonstrates the importance of the completeness of atomic datasets in applying a collisional-radiative model to low-temperature plasma diagnostics.N