Open AccessPropagating double layers in electronegative plasmas
Author(s) -
A. Meige,
Nicolas Plihon,
Gerjan Hagelaar,
Jean-Pierre Bœuf,
P. Chabert,
R. W. Boswell
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
physics of plasmas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1089-7674
pISSN - 1070-664X
DOI - 10.1063/1.2736946
Subject(s) - helicon , physics , plasma , instability , atomic physics , electron , diffusion , ion , electron temperature , distribution function , double layer (biology) , computational physics , mechanics , thermodynamics , nuclear physics , layer (electronics) , nanotechnology , materials science , quantum mechanics
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 electron temperature, and the various source terms are calculated is developed to investigate these propagating double layers. The spontaneous formation of propagating double layers is only observed in the simulation for system in which the localized inductive heating is combined with small diameter chambers. The conditions of formation and the properties of the propagating double layers observed in the simulation are in good agreement with that of the experiment. By correlating the results of the experiment and the simulation, a formation mechanism compatible with ion two-stream instability is proposed. © 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2736946
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