Measurement of effective sheath width around cutoff probe in low-pressure plasmas

Abstract

Previous studies indicated that the measurement results of microwave probes can be improved by applying the adequate sheath width to their measurement models, and consequently the sheath width around the microwave probe tips has become very important information for microwave probe diagnostics. In this paper, we propose a method for measuring the argon plasma sheath width around the cutoff probe tips by applying the circuit model to the cutoff probe phase spectrum. The measured sheath width of the cutoff probe was found to be in good agreement with the floated sheath width calculated from the Child-Langmuir sheath law. The physical reasons for a discrepancy between the two measurements are also discussed.