https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170203
Electron temperature measurement in a surface-wave-produced argon plasma at intermediate pressures
1
Departamento de Fisica Aplicada, Universidad de Córdoba,
Córdoba, Spain
2
Departamento de Fisica Atómica, Molecular y Nuclear,
Universidad de Sevilla, 411080 Sevilla, Spain
3
Instituto de Ciencias de Materiales, Isla de la Cartuja, 411080 Sevilla, Spain
Corresponding author: a cotrino@cica.es
Received:
24
July
2000
Revised:
19
January
2001
Published online: 15 June 2001
The main objective of this work is to obtain the electron temperature in an argon surface-wave-produced plasma column at intermediate gas pressures. After proving that argon upper excited states remain in Excitation Saturation Balance, the value of electron temperature along the plasma column has been obtained using a modified Saha equation and a corrected Boltzmann-plot. Moreover, the electron energy distribution function has been verified to be nearly Maxwellian in a 0.8-2.8 torr intermediate pressure range.
PACS: 52.70.-m – Plasma diagnostic techniques and instrumentation / 52.70.Kz – Optical (ultraviolet, visible, infrared) measurements / 52.80.Pi – High-frequency and RF discharges
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2001