| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Plasma Science and Technology Division | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session PS2-TuA |
| Session: | Plasma Diagnostics, Sensors and Control I |
| Presenter: | Dave Boris, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) |
| Authors: | D.R. Boris, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) R.F. Fernsler, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) S.G. Walton, Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Plasma density measurements are an essential tool in understanding and controlling processing plasmas across a wide range of applications. Charge collection probes (Langmuir probes) are of limited utility in depositing plasmas, high pressure applications or in processes that require the use of reactive gases, as these environments result in unreliable data acquisition. Plasma frequency probes are an attractive alternative to Langmuir probes in such applications since they do not suffer significant performance degradation in these environments. This work presents frequency probes measurements of plasma density over a range of 109 to 1012 cm-3 in a variety of processing plasma chemistries (N2, CH4, NH3, O2 and SF6). In addition to electron density measurements frequency probes are also useful for measuring plasma potential, electron temperature, and electron energy distribution functions in the gas chemistries mentioned above.