DETERMINATION OF THE ION DENSITY AND ELECTRON TEMPERATURE USING A PLANAR ELECTROSTATIC PROBE

摘要

A planar electrostatic probe was used to determine the positive ion concentration and the electron temperature in argon and oxygen plasmas. A planar probe is firstly negatively charged, after which ion and electron fluxes return the voltage to the floating potential. From the voltage-time characteristics, it is possible to determine the positive ion flux, the ion density and the electron temperature. The results indicate that the positive ion concentration increases with the power applied to the plasma, while the electron temperature remains approximately constant for argon plasmas and decreases slightly for the oxygen plasmas.