Emission Imaging of Pulsed Plasma Plumes Emerging Through a Transversal Hole in the Hollow Cathode of a DC Reactor

A sequence of images shows the emission of brief pulsed plasma plumes emerging laterally from a small hole in the wall of a DC hollow-cathode reactor. The orifice diameter is comparable to the plasma sheath thickness. The images highlight the transient behavior under particular conditions of these plasma events. They also extend current predictions for RF discharges on the distributions of ions flowing through small apertures to the case of hollow-cathode DC discharges.