Response of the low pressure hot-filament discharge plasma to a positively biased auxiliary disk electrode

TL;DR

This study investigates how a positively biased auxiliary metal disk influences plasma properties in low-pressure helium discharges, revealing increased plasma potential, electron temperature, and density, with results explained by electrostatic confinement effects.

Contribution

It provides experimental insights into the effects of biased auxiliary electrodes on plasma parameters and compares these with theoretical models, highlighting opposite behaviors observed.

Findings

Positively biased disk increases plasma potential, electron temperature, and density.

Negatively biased disk does not alter plasma parameters.

Experimental results align qualitatively with electrostatic confinement theory.

Abstract

In steady-state, the plasma loss rate to the chamber wall is balanced by the ionization rate in the hot-filament discharges. This balance in the loss rate and ionization rate maintains the quasi--neutrality of the bulk plasma. In this report, we have studied the properties of bulk plasma in the presence of an auxiliary (additional) biased metal disk, which is working as a sink, in low-pressure helium plasma. A single Langmuir probe and emissive probe are used to characterize the plasma for various biases (positive and negative) to the metal disk, which was placed along the discharge axis inside the plasma. It is observed that only a positively biased disk increases the plasma potential, electron temperature, and plasma density. Moreover, the plasma parameters remain unaltered when the disk is negatively biased. The observed results for two different-sized positively metal disks are compared with an available theoretical model and found an opposite behavior of plasma density variation with the disk bias voltages at given discharge condition. The role of the primary energetic electron population in determining the plasma parameters is discussed. These experimental results are qualitatively explained on the basis of electrostatic confinement arising due to the loss of electrons to a biased metal disk electrode.