Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Ion acoustic wave studies near the presheath/sheath boundary in a weakly collisional argon/xenon plasma

Lutfi Oksuz1, Dongsoo Lee and Noah Hershkowitz

Show affiliations


Ion acoustic wave (IAW) phase velocities are measured near the sheath/presheath boundary in a weakly collisional argon/xenon plasma. Wave profiles versus position are measured using a boxcar averager with a gate width of 30 ns and CW excitation at 50 or 75 kHz. Variable gate delays allow measurement of details of the wave close to the boundary. It is shown that the phase velocity at the presheath/sheath boundary is approximately twice the phase velocity in the bulk plasma for both argon and argon/xenon plasmas, in agreement with a recent calculation (Lee D et al 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 155004). This result indicates each ion's drift velocity at the boundary is equal to the IAW phase velocity in the bulk plasma.


PACS

52.35.Fp Electrostatic waves and oscillations (e.g., ion-acoustic waves)

52.70.-m Plasma diagnostic techniques and instrumentation

52.40.Kh Plasma sheaths

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Plasma physics

Dates

Issue 1 (February 2008)

Received 28 August 2007, in final form 11 October 2007

Published 19 December 2007



View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.