Measurements of the negative ion density in SF6/Ar plasma using a plane electrostatic probe

A new method to estimate the negative ion density in reactive gas plasmas with a Langmuir probe is proposed. This method has the advantage that the negative ion density is evaluated only by taking the ratio of the ion saturation-electron saturation current ratio obtained from the I-V curve of the Langmuir probe measured in an electronegative-gas mixture plasma to that measured in a reference noble gas plasma. The negative ion density in a SF6/Ar double plasma is estimated utilizing this method. Furthermore, the negative ion density measured with this method is confirmed to agree with that calculated from the measured phase velocity of the ion acoustic wave (fast mode) in the SF6/Ar double plasma, where positive and negative ion masses are obtained from the spectrum analysis with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.