Gated Real Time Ion Acoustic Wave Studies in Argon and AR-XE Mixture Plasmas

Summary form only given. Knowledge of ion drift velocities is important to the understanding of how ions are accelerated towards the plasma sheath. We present ion-acoustic wave propagation data taken in a multi-dipole plasma which addresses this issue. In a DC filament argon and argon-xenon discharge plasma ion acoustic wave measurements are taken. The 30 ns gated real time ion acoustic wave measurements are measured with a boxcar averager recording the ion saturation current to a planar Langmuir probe that is positioned through the presheath near a negatively biased plate. Ion concentrations and ion drift velocities are determined for single ion species and for two ion species for low-pressure low-temperature plasmas.