Neutral gas density depletion due to neutral gas heating and pressure balance in an inductively coupled plasma

Abstract

The spatial distribution of neutral gas temperature and total pressure have been measured for pure N2, He/5%N2 and Ar/5%N2 in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor, and a significant rise in the neutral gas temperature has been observed. When thermal transpiration is used to correct total pressure measurements, the total pressure remains constant regardless of the plasma condition. Neutral pressure is depleted due to the pressure balance when the plasma pressure (mainly electron pressure) becomes comparable to the neutral pressure in high density plasma. Since the neutral gas follows the ideal gas law, the neutral gas density profile was obtained from the neutral gas temperature and the corrected neutral pressure measurements. The results show that the neutral gas density at the centre of the plasma chamber (factor of 2–4 ×) decreases significantly in the presence of a plasma discharge. Significant spatial variation in neutral gas uniformity occurs in such plasmas due to neutral gas heating and pressure balance.