Excitation of ion rarefaction waves in a low pressure plasma by applying a short high negative voltage pulse

Abstract

The ion rarefaction response to a high negative voltage pulse (U0 >> kTe/e) applied to a metal plate immersed in a low pressure argon plasma, for time duration lower than ion plasma period, is experimentally examined. In the present experiment the pulse duration is kept intermediate between the ion and electron plasma response times. Such a pulse duration is chosen so that ions are collectively undisturbed and, according to general understanding, no force is given to ions. Hence no ion rarefaction wave should be excited. But contrary to the general understanding, excitation of a rarefaction wave is observed. The results indicate that the speed of the rarefaction waves for various conditions (like plasma density, applied pulse magnitude, and pulse duration) is supersonic. After a distance from the exciter (biased plate), typically three-fourth of the exciter diameter, the rarefaction waves are turned into ion acoustic waves. The experimental results indicate that even though the bias durations are shorter than the ion plasma period, if the bias magnitude is large enough, some collective plasma behavior can still be excited.