Effect of total emitted electron velocity distribution function on the plasma sheath near a floating wall

摘要

Electrons emitted from a solid surface can noticeably affect characteristics of plasma sheath surrounding that surface by modifying current balance at wall, charge separation in sheath region and Bohm criterion at sheath edge. We establish a static sheath model with kinetic electrons and cold ions to emphasize the effect of different total emitted electron velocity distribution functions (EEVDFs) on classic sheath solution and its structure transition. Four total EEVDFs with same average energy are considered separately. It is found that total EEVDFs influence the sheath solution and the threshold of total electron emission coefficient (EEC) for classic sheath dramatically, and can cause no solution for critical space-charge limited (SCL) sheath. These results indicate that, as EEC increases from zero gradually, the sheath will not transit from classic sheath to SCL sheath structure for some special total EEVDFs.