Experimental measurement of the impressed electric field in a multipolar electron cyclotron resonance plasma source

Summary form only given. It is well-known that microwave sources exhibit complex, nonlinear output behavior versus many independent input variables. For example, the output plasma density can vary by over an order of magnitude as the independent input variables, such as microwave power, pressure, gas flow rate and microwave reactor matching are only slightly changed. In addition, these output variations exhibit hysteresis and multiple steady-states, which are dependent in poorly-understood ways upon the many different independently controllable input variables. An understanding of this nonlinear input/output behavior is essential for optimum plasma source design and also is required for developing automatic reactor control strategies. Thus this paper will describe the detailed experimental measurement of the relationships between the input variables, the internal variables and the output variables; of a multipolar electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source. The experimental performance of a 12.5 cm diameter, 2.45 GHz excited multipolar ECR plasma source is measured in argon gas.