AVS 50th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session PS-MoA

Paper PS-MoA1
Ion-Acoustic Solitons in a High Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering Discharge

Monday, November 3, 2003, 2:00 pm, Room 314

Session: Plasma Sources
Presenter: J. Alami, Linkoping University, Sweden
Authors: K.B. Gylfason, University of Iceland
J. Alami, Linkoping University, Sweden
U. Helmersson, Linkoping University, Sweden
J.T. Gudmundsson, University of Iceland
Correspondent: Click to Email
We report on the formation of ion acoustic solitons in an unipolar pulsed magnetron plasma. A high density plasma > 10@super 18@ cm@super -3@ is created by applying a high power pulse (6-17 J) with pulse length 100 µms and repetition frequency 50 Hz to a planar magnetron discharge. The temporal behaviour of the electron density measured by a Langmuir probe shows oscillations as the plasma density decays. We relate these oscillations to solitons traveling away from the target followed by stationary oscillations. The velocity, width, and amplitude characteristics of the soliton are discussed and compared to the properties of the soliton solutions of the Korteweg-de Vries equation. The speed of the soliton along the axis of the discharge decreases with increased gas pressure. We relate this decrease in travelling speed to the decrease in the fractional density modulation dn/n@sub 0@.