Diagnosing ratio of electron density to collision frequency of plasma surrounding scaled model in a shock tube using low-frequency alternating magnetic field phase shift

A non-contact low-frequency(LF)method of diagnosing the plasma surrounding a scaled model in a shock tube is proposed.This method utilizes the phase shift occurring after the transmission of an LF alternating magnetic field through the plasma to directly measure the ratio of the plasma loop average electron density to collision frequency.An equivalent circuit model is used to analyze the relationship of the phase shift of the magnetic field component of LF electromagnetic waves with the plasma electron density and collision frequency.The applicable range of the LF method on a given plasma scale is analyzed.The upper diagnostic limit for the ratio of the electron density(unit:m^(-3))to collision frequency(unit:Hz)exceeds 1×10^(11),enabling an electron density to exceed 1×10^(20)m^(-3)and a collision frequency to be less than 1 GHz.In this work,the feasibility of using the LF phase shift to implement the plasma diagnosis is also assessed.Diagnosis experiments on shock tube equipment are conducted by using both the electrostatic probe method and LF method.By comparing the diagnostic results of the two methods,the inversion results are relatively consistent with each other,thereby preliminarily verifying the feasibility of the LF method.The ratio of the electron density to the collision frequency has a relatively uniform distribution during the plasma stabilization.The LF diagnostic path is a loop around the model,which is suitable for diagnosing the plasma that surrounds the model.Finally,the causes of diagnostic discrepancy between the two methods are analyzed.The proposed method provides a new avenue for diagnosing high-density enveloping plasma.

Fast Diagnosis of Transient Plasma by Langmuir Probe

A method for the fast measurement of electron temperature and density with temporal resolution in transient plasma has been implemented by Langmuir probe. The diagnostic system consists of a single Lang- muir probe driven by a high frequency sinusoidal voltage. The current and voltage spectrum on the probe were detected synchronously by an oscilloscope with sampling rate being at least 5 times higher than the frequency of sweep voltage. The system has been used to diagnose the transient plasma generated by hypervelocity-impact of LY12 aluminum projectile into LY12 aluminum target.

Improved Double-Probe Technique for Spatially Resolved Diagnosis of Dual-Frequency Capacitive Plasmas

The conventional double-probe technique was improved with a combination of selfpowering and radio-frequency（RF） choking.RF perturbations in dual-frequency capacitively coupled discharge were effectively eliminated,as judged by the disappearance of self-bias on the probes.The improved technique was tested by spatially resolved measurements of the electron temperature and ion density in both the axial and radial directions of a dual-frequency capacitive plasma.The measured data in the axial direction were compared with simulation results,and they were excellently consistent with each other.The measured radial distributions of the ion density and electron temperature were influenced significantly by the lower frequency（LF） power.It was shown that superposition of the lower frequency to the higher frequency（HF） power shifted the maximum ion density from the radial center to the edge region,while the trend for the electron temperature profile was the opposite.The changing feature of the ion density distribution is qualitatively consistent with that of the optical emission intensity reported.

Diagnosis for the Interaction of Supersonic Molecular Beam with Plasma

Supersonic Molecular Beam Injection (SMBI) is a new fuelling method for Tokamaks and has recently been improved to enhance the flux of the beam and to make a survey of the cluster effect within the beam. There are a series of new phenomena, which implicate the interaction of the beam (including clusters) with the toroidal plasma of HL-1M Tokamak. The Ha signals from the edge show a regular variation around the torus. Around the injection port, the edge Hα signals are positive rectangular wave, which is consistent with that of the injection beam pulses. The edge electron temperature, measured with movable Langmuir probes, decreases by an order of magnitude and the density increases by an order of magnitude. Hα emission at the beam injection port, measured with CCD camera at an angle of 13.4 degrees to the SMBI line, shows many separate peaks within the contour plot. These peaks may show the strong emission produced by the interaction of the hydrogen clusters with the plasma. Hydrogen clusters may be produced in the beam according to the empirical scaling (Hagena) law of clustering onset, * = .here d is the nozzle diameter in μm, Po the stagnation pressure in mbar, To the source temperature in K, and k is a constant related to the gas species. If * > 100, clusters will be formed. In present experiment * is about 127.

Study of axial double layer in helicon plasma by optical emission spectroscopy and simple probe

In this work we used a passive measurement method based on a high-impedance electrostatic probe and an optical emission spectroscope （OES） to investigate the characteristics of the double layer （DL） in an argon helicon plasma. The DL can be confirmed by a rapid change in the plasma potential along the axis. The axial potential variation of the passive measurement shows that the DL forms near a region of strong magnetic field gradient when the plasma is operated in wave- coupled mode, and the DL strength increases at higher powers in this experiment. The emission intensity of the argon atom line, which is strongly dependent on the metastable atom concentration, shows a similar spatial distribution to the plasma potential along the axis. The emission intensity of the argon atom line and the argon ion line in the DL suggests the existence of an energetic electron population upstream of the DL. The electron density upstream is much higher than that downstream, which is mainly caused by these energetic electrons.

Characterization of a microsecond pulsed non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure Ar plasma using laser scattering and optical emission spectroscopy

A non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure argon(Ar)plasma excited by microsecond pulse is studied experimentally by laser scattering and optical emission spectroscopy(OES),and theoretically by collisional-radiative(CR)model.More specifically,the electron temperature and electron density of plasma are obtained directly by the laser Thomson scattering,the gas temperature is measured by laser Raman scattering,the optical emissions of excited Ar states of plasma are measured by OES.The laser scattering results show that the electron temperature is about 1 eV which is similar to that excited by 60 Hz AC power,but the gas temperature is as low as 300 K compared to about 700 K excited by 60 Hz AC power.It is shown that the microsecond pulsed power supply,rather than nanosecond ones,is short enough to reduce the gas temperature of atmospheric pressure plasma to near room temperature.The electron temperature and electron density are also obtained by CR model based on OES,and find that the intensities of the optical emission intensity lines of 727.41,811.73,841.08,842.83,852.44 and 912.86 nm of Ar can be used to characterize the behavior of electron density and electron temperature,it is very useful to quickly estimate the activity of the atmospheric pressure Ar plasma in many applications.

Investigation of working pressure on the surface roughness controlling technology of glow discharge polymer films based on the diagnosed plasma

The effects of working pressure on the component, surface morphology, surface roughness, and deposition rate of glow discharge polymer （GDP） films by a trans-2-butene/hydrogen gas mixture were investigated based on plasma characteristics diagnosis. The composition and ion energy distributions of a multi-carbon （CaHs/H2） plasma mixture at different working pressures were diagnosed by an energy-resolved mass spectrometer （MS） during the GDP film deposition process. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （FT-IR）, field emission scanning electron microscope （SEM） and white-fight interferometer （WLI） results were obtained to investigate the structure, morphology and roughness characterization of the deposited films, respectively. It was found that the degree of ionization of the C4H8/H2 plasma reduces with an increase in the working pressure. At a low working pressure, the C-H fragments exhibited small-mass and high ion energy in plasma. In this case, the film had a low CH3/CH2 ratio, and displayed a smooth surface without any holes, cracks or asperities. While the working pressure increased to 15 Pa, the largest number of large-mass fragments led to the deposition rate reaching a maximum of 2.11 #m h-1, and to hole defects on the film surface. However, continuing to increase the working pressure, the film surface became smooth again, and the interface between clusters became inconspicuous without etching pits.

Iterative Calculation of Plasma Density from a Cylindrical Probe Characteristic

A novel method is proposed for treating cylindrical probe characteristics to obtain plasma density. The method consists of exponential extrapolation of the transitional part of the I -V curve to the floating potential for the ion saturation current, other than the existing theories which use the ion branch, and an iterative sheath thickness correction procedure for improved accuracy. The method was tested by treating Langmuir probe I-V characteristics obtained from inductively coupled Ar discharges at various pressures, and comparing the present results with those deduced by existing theories. It was shown that the plasma densities obtained by the present method are in good agreement with those calculated by the Allen-Boyd-Reynolds （ABR） theory, suggesting the effectiveness of the proposed method. Without need of manual setting and adjustment of fitting parameters, the method may be suitable for automatic and real time processing of probe characteristics.

The application of a helicon plasma source in reactive sputter deposition of tungsten nitride thin films

A reactive helicon wave plasma(HWP)sputtering method is used for the deposition of tungsten nitride(WNx)thin films.N_(2)is introduced downstream in the diffusion chamber.The impacts of N_(2)on the Ar-HWP parameters,such as ion energy distribution functions(IEDFs),electron energy probability functions(EEPFs),electron temperature(Te)and density(ne),are investigated.With the addition of N_(2),a decrease in electron density is observed due to the dissociative recombination of electrons with N_(2)^(+).The similar IEDF curves of Ar+and N_(2)^(+) indicate that the majority ofN_(2)^(+) stems from the charge transfer in the collision between Ar+and N_(2).Moreover,due to the collisions between electrons and N_(2)ions,EEPFs show a relatively lower Tewith a depletion in the high-energy tail.With increasing negative bias from 50 to 200 V,a phase transition from hexagonal WN to fcc-WN0.5is observed,together with an increase in the deposition rate and roughness.

Understanding hydrogen plasma processes based on the diagnostic results of 2.45 GHz ECRIS at Peking University

Optical emission spectroscopy（OES）, as a simple in situ method without disturbing the plasma, has been performed for the plasma diagnosis of a 2.45 GHz permanent magnet electron cyclotron resonance（PMECR） ion source at Peking University（PKU）. A spectrum measurement platform has been set up with the quartz-chamber electron cyclotron resonance（ECR） ion source [Patent Number： ZL 201110026605.4] and experiments were carried out recently. The electron temperature and electron density inside the ECR plasma chamber have been measured with the method of line intensity ratio of noble gas. Hydrogen plasma processes inside the discharge chamber are discussed based on the diagnostic results. What is more, the superiority of the method of line intensity ratio of noble gas is indicated with a comparison to line intensity ratio of hydrogen. Details will be presented in this paper.

The double coupled microwave resonance probes and application for diagnosing atmospheric pressure plasma jet

The double-coupled microwave resonance probe(DMRP)based on the hairpin probe is proposed for diagnosing atmospheric plasma jet(ne<1017 m-3).In this work,the resonance characteristics of DMRP are investigated by numerical simulation.It shows that two resonance peaks on the reflectance spectrum can be observed,and influenced significantly by some parameters,such as the probe separation,the distance to the handheld radio frequency atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma jet(RF-APGDPJ)and the plasma electron density less than 1017 m-3.Based on two resonance modes of DMRP,the electron densities in the afterglow of RF-APGDPJ at the different rf powers and helium flow rates are diagnosed experimentally by matching the change of FWHM(Df1-Df1,airand Df2-Df2,air)measured by vector network analyzer with the simulated relation between the FWHM changes and the plasma density.

A real-time neutron-gamma discriminator based on the support vector machine method for the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer

A new neutron-gamma discriminator based on the support vector machine(SVM) method is proposed to improve the performance of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer. The neutron detector is an EJ-299-33 plastic scintillator with pulse-shape discrimination(PSD) property. The SVM algorithm is implemented in field programmable gate array(FPGA) to carry out the real-time sifting of neutrons in neutron-gamma mixed radiation fields. This study compares the ability of the pulse gradient analysis method and the SVM method. The results show that this SVM discriminator can provide a better discrimination accuracy of 99.1%. The accuracy and performance of the SVM discriminator based on FPGA have been evaluated in the experiments. It can get a figure of merit of 1.30.

Research on the phase adjustment method for dispersion interferometer on HL-2A tokamak

A synchronous demodulation system is proposed and deployed for CO_2 dispersion interferometer on HL-2 A,which aims at high plasma density measurements and real-time feedback control.In order to make sure that the demodulator and the interferometer signal are synchronous in phase,a phase adjustment（PA） method has been developed for the demodulation system.The method takes advantages of the field programmable gate array parallel and pipeline process capabilities to carry out high performance and low latency PA.Some experimental results presented show that the PA method is crucial to the synchronous demodulation system and reliable to follow the fast change of the electron density.The system can measure the lineintegrated density with a high precision of 2.0？×10^（18）m^（-2）.

Improvement of the Harmonic Technique of Probe for Measurements of Electron Temperature and Ion Density

Conventional Langmuir probe techniques usually face the difficulty of being used in processing plasmas where dielectric compounds form,due to rapid failure by surface insulation.A solution to the problem,the so-called harmonic probe technique,had been proposed and shown effectiveness.In this study,the technique was investigated in detail by changing bias signal amplitudes V_0,and evaluated its accuracy by comparing with the conventional Langmuir probe.It was found that the measured electron temperature Teincreased with V_0,but showing a relatively stable region when V_0〉Te/e in which it was close to the true Tevalue.This is contrary to the general consideration that V_0should be smaller than Te/e for accurate measurement of Te.The phenomenon is interpreted by the non-negligible change of the ion current with V_0at low V_0values.On the other hand,the measured nialso increased with V_0due to the sheath expansion,and to improve the accuracy of niit needs to linearly extrapolate the ni-V_0trend to V_0=0.The results were applied to a diagnosis of the plasmas for chemical vapor deposition of diamond-like carbon thin films and the relationship between plasma parameters and films deposition rates was obtained.