Analysis of the self-oscillations instability due to the plasma coupling with an emissive hot cathode sheath

Experimental results are reported showing that plasma self-oscillations appear when the ion flux arriving at the hot emissive cathode double sheath boundary from a continuous plasma discharge is not high enough to sustain the discharge. Using the stability criterion of a double sheath and the particle balance equations, different conditions for the plasma stability are stated, in good qualitative agreement with experimental results. A nonlinear analysis giving the noninteger correlation dimension in a chaotic self-oscillations regime is also reported, showing that a complete understanding of this instability may be reached by a finite set of nonlinear equations. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.