Measurements of low-energy electron reflection at a plasma boundary
Abstract
It is demonstrated that low-energy (<3 eV) electron reflection from a solid surface in contact with a low-temperature plasma can have significant variation with time. An uncontaminated, i.e., “clean,” metallic surface (just after heating up to glow) in a plasma environment may have practically no reflection of low-energy incident electrons. However, a contaminated, i.e., “dirty,” surface (in some time after cleaning by heating) that has a few monolayers of absorbent can reflect low-energy incident electrons and therefore significantly affect the net electron current collected by the surface. This effect may significantly change plasma properties and should be taken into account in plasma experiments and models. A diagnostic method is demonstrated for measurements of low-energy electron absorption coefficient in plasmas with a mono-energetic electron group.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4933002
Entities
People
- I. D. Kaganovich
- I. P. Kurlyandskaya
- M. E. Koepke
- Steven Adams
- Vladimir I. Demidov
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- National Science Foundation
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
- Saint Petersburg State University
- Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics
- West Virginia University