Effect of electron temperature fluctuations on slowly swept Langmuir probe measurements
- Center for Energy Research, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States)
Swept Langmuir probes are widely used to measure electron temperature (T{sub e}) in laboratory plasmas by performing an exponential fit to the measured volt-ampere (I-V) characteristic. Often the probe voltage sweep frequency is much lower than the characteristic frequencies of the plasma fluctuations and a time-averaged I-V characteristic is used for the fit. We show by numerical modeling that in the presence of T{sub e} fluctuations with frequencies well above the voltage sweep frequency this standard technique applied to a swept single probe tends to read higher than the actual time-averaged T{sub e} provided no correlated plasma potential (V{sub p}) fluctuations are present. In the presence of coupled T{sub e} and V{sub p} fluctuations a slowly swept single probe may read either higher or lower than the average T{sub e}, depending on the relative amplitude and phase of the temperature and potential fluctuations. In contrast, swept double probe measurements of T{sub e} are virtually unaffected by either T{sub e} or V{sub p} fluctuations.
- OSTI ID:
- 20641310
- Journal Information:
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 75, Issue 10; Conference: 15. topical conference on high temperature plasma diagnostics, San Diego, CA (United States), 19-22 Apr 2004; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1789623; (c) 2004 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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