Two species presheath measurements in a multi-dipole plasma

Summary form only given, as follows. Emissive probe measurements of plasma presheath potential profiles were made in a DC hot filament multi-dipole plasma discharge. The measurements were done with argon, xenon and a combination of the two gases. The presheath plasma potential near a negatively biased plate was mapped in two dimensions. The inflection point method in the limit of zero emission was used. The presheath was found to be a region of constant electric field with characteristic length the order of the ion-neutral collision length. The results show contraction of the presheath in the direction perpendicular to the plate as the pressure increases (between 0.5 and 3 mtorr). Two competing processes affect the presheath. These are ionization and collisions with ionization becoming more important at lower pressures. Experimental results are compared to various presheath models.