NonliNEAR vertical oscillations of a particle in a sheath of a rf discharge.
A new simple method to measure the spatial distribution of the electric field in the plasma sheath is proposed. The method is based on the experimental investigation of vertical oscillations of a single particle in the sheath of a low-pressure radio-frequency discharge. It is shown that the oscillations become strongly nonlinear as the amplitude increases. The theory of anharmonic oscillations provides a good quantitative description of the data and gives estimates for the first two anharmonic terms in an expansion of the sheath potential around the particle equilibrium.
Ivlev
A V
AV
Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, D-85740 Garching, Germany. ivlev@mpe.mpg.de
Sütterlin
R
R
Steinberg
V
V
Zuzic
M
M
Morfill
G
G