Influence of glow cathode on parameters of ion-beam plasma

Summary form only given. The results of an experimental investigation of ion-beam plasma parameters in an ion etching technological system are presented for the case of ion beam space charge neutralization by a glow cathode-neutralizer (CN) in comparison with analogous results without CN. The measured parameters were plasma potential /spl phi//sub pl/, neutralizing electrons energy distribution f/sub e/ and temperature of its maxwellian kernel T/sub e/. The investigation was performed on the vacuum unit equipped with the multichannel Hall-type ion source "Radical-M" (production of "Vacuummashpribor", Moscow). The beam radius and length was 50 mm and 200 mm respectively, average beam energy was 0.3-1 keV, beam current varied over the range of 1-50 mA. The beam propagated in a vacuum chamber with grounded metal walls at gas pressure in the range of 10/sup -5/-10/sup -3/ Torr. CN was a tungsten wire of 0.4 mm diameter. To measure /spl phi//sub pl/, T/sub e/, f/sub e/ a Langmuir probe was used with addition of modulation technique of probe current double differentiation.