USE OF A CYLINDRICAL LANGMUIR PROBE FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF CHARGED-PARTICLE POPULATIONS IN A PLANAR, DIODE GLOW-DISCHARGE DEVICE

The application of the single Langmuir probe techniques to the measurement of electron temperature, electron number density, positive ion number density, average electron energy and electron energy distribution functions in the negative glow region of a planar diode argon glow discharge device is described. These charged particle properties were determined as a function of axial distance from a copper cathode surface at various discharge conditions. The effect of source pressure was determined in both constant current and constant voltage modes. The general range of the charged particle properties are electron temperature 0̃.20-0.35 eV; electron/ion densities on the order of 1011 cm-3; and average electron energy 0.7-1.0 eV. The electron energy distribution functions show non-Maxwellian distributions, with depletion of high energy electrons. © 1990.