A Study of Surface-Wave Sustained Plasma

• Main Authors: Shui-Tien Tsai, 蔡水田
• Other Authors: Kwong-Kau Tiong
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1994
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23970954342062374701

碩士 === 國立海洋大學 === 電子工程學系 === 82 === Electromagnetic surface waves can be used to sustain plasma. The wave is excited at one extremity of the plasma column by a so-called wave launcher, and then travels along both the plasma column that it sustains and the dielectrics enclosing it. These media constitute the sole propagating structure for the wave. Surface modes are slow electromagnetic waves propagating along a plasma surface. The surface wave energy dissipates almost completely into the plasma. Thus, an efficient enough surface wave launcher can heat or sustain a plasma. An UHF structure called a surfatron will be utilized for execitation of a traveling surface wave which will sustain a plasma column acting as a propagating medium. The interest in surface wave discharges comes in part from the versatility of their operating conditions. These discharges can be operate over a broad range of applied frequencies (from 1 MHz to ~10 GHz), of pressures (from ~1mTorr to a few times the atmospheric pressure), and of discharge tube radius (from about 0.5 mm to above 10 cm). Surface-wave produced plasma are part of a larger class of high frequency (HF) discharges, termed traveling-wave discharges (TWD). In this work, we will discuss the phase and the attenuation characteristic of surface wave discharge operating at the azimuthal symmetric mode.