Influence of Working Pressure on Ion Sensitive Probe Measurement in Microwave ECR Plasmas

In order to precisely measure the ion parameters in a microwave electron cyclotron resonance plasma using an ion sensitive probe, the dependences of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics on the shielding height (h) and the potential difference between inner and outer electrodes (VB) have been investigated at different working pressures of 0.03 Pa and 0.8 Pa. Results show that the I-V curves at higher pressure are more sensitive to the variation of h than those at lower pressure. The influence of VB on ion temperature (Ti) measurement becomes more prominent when the pressure is increased from 0.03 Pa to 0.8 Pa. Under both pressures, the optimized h is obtained at the condition where the current reaches zero in the positive voltage region with a suitable VB of −1.5 V because of effective shielding of the electron E×B drift.