AN ONLINE LANGMUIR PROBE TECHNIQUE FOR THE STUDY OF AFTERGLOW PLASMAS

A new analytical technique has been developed to determine from Langmuir probe characteristics the electron number densities, electron energy distribution functions and electron temperatures in thermal and near-thermal afterglow plasmas. This technique utilises a standard personal computer equipped with a simple 12-bit analogue/digital and digital/analogue converters coupled to the Langmuire probe via a specially designed differential amplifier. The energy distribution functions are obtained by numerical differentiation of the probe characteristics using a fast noise-suppressing numerical technique, the mathematical principles of which are discussed in some detail. Some sample data, which have been obtained in truly thermalised helium flowing afterglows and in argon flowing afterglow at elevated electron temperatures, are presented to demonstrate the value of this new analytical technique.