Electric field measurements on the INCA discharge

TL;DR

This paper compares two diagnostic methods for measuring electric fields in the INCA discharge, revealing deviations from theoretical designs and discussing ways to improve the electric field configuration for better plasma source efficiency.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of B-dot probe and RFMOS diagnostics in measuring INCA discharge fields, highlighting discrepancies and potential improvements.

Findings

Good agreement between B-dot and RFMOS measurements

Experimental fields deviate from theoretical design

Discussion on improving electric field uniformity

Abstract

Developing large-area inductively coupled plasma sources requires deviation from the standard coil concepts and the development of advanced antenna designs. First steps in this direction employ periodic array structures. A recent example is the Inductively Coupled Array (INCA) discharge, where use is made of the collisionless electron heating in the electric field of a periodic array of vortex fields. Naturally, the efficiency of such discharges depends on the how well the experimental array realizes the theoretically prescribed field design. In this work two diagnostic methods are employed to measure the field structure of the INCA discharge. Ex situ B-dot probe measurements are compared to in situ radio-frequency modulation spectroscopy (RFMOS) and good agreement be tween their results is observed. Both diagnostics show systematic deviations of the experimentally generated field structure from the one employed in the theoretical description of the INCA discharge. The subtleties in applying both diagnostic methods together with an analysis of the possible consequences of the non-ideal electric field configuration and ways to improve it are discussed.