Determination of mean electron energy in an elevated-pressure plasma by the probe method

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The possibility of determining mean electron energy from the slope of the dependence of probe electron current on probe potential under conditions of a nonequilibrium electron energy distribution function (EEDF) and electron drain to the probe is demonstrated. To accomplish this one must use the portion of the current-voltage curve (CVC) in the region of the null of the third derivative of the probe current. Given a drain parameter δ with an accuracy of ≅20%. For an EEDF close to equilibrium the maximum uncertainty of determination by this technique does not exceed 50%.