Contribution to the application of the langmuir probe technique for plasma monitoring in the Ar and n-hexane mixture plasma during the polymerisation process

Abstract

In the present paper the Langmuir probe technique was applied for plasma monitoring in the Ar and n-hexane mixture plasma during the polymerisation process. The experiments were performed in a stainless steel DC magnetron reactor with a planar magnetron cathode. Within the investigated range of the gas pressure, no time-stable condition of the discharge was found. The regular oscillations, of a frequency of approximately 32 kHz, were observed in the Ar and 20% n-hexane mixture at the total pressure of 10 Pa and the discharge current of 8 mA. The experimentally obtained probe characteristics were used to determine the density and the average energy of electrons. In the DC magnetron stainless steel reactor the electron average energy in the Ar and n-hexane mixture plasma was about one order of magnitude smaller than in the case in which the working gas inside the reactor was the pure Ar.

The probe measurements in the magnetron reactor were supplemented by the experiment in the customary glass discharge tube with a hollow cathode. In the glass discharge tube and in the Ar and 10% n-hexane mixture plasma a region of plasma parameters was found, in which the plasma was stable and no instabilities were observed. At such conditions the experiments in the glass discharge tube were used for the study of the efficiency of the probe surface cleaning methods used.