Measurement of absolute electron density with a plasma impedance probe

David D. Blackwell, David N. Walker, and William E. Amatucci

Citation: Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 023503 (2005); doi: 10.1063/1.1847608

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1847608
View Table of Contents: http://rsi.aip.org/resource/1/RSINAK/v76/i2
Published by the American Institute of Physics.

Additional information on Rev. Sci. Instrum.

Journal Homepage: http://rsi.aip.org
Journal Information: http://rsi.aip.org/about/about_the_journal
Top downloads: http://rsi.aip.org/features/most_downloaded
Information for Authors: http://rsi.aip.org/authors

Downloaded 12 Apr 2013 to 137.99.31.134. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://rsi.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
 REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 76, 023503 (2005)

Measurement of absolute electron density with a plasma impedance probe

David D. Blackwell,a) David N. Walker, and William E. Amatucci
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Plasma Physics Division, Washington, DC
(Received 15 November 2004; accepted 15 November 2004; published online 6 January 2005)
A small spherical probe is used in conjunction with a network analyzer to determine the impedance
of the probe-plasma system over a wide frequency range. Impedance curves are in good agreement
with accepted circuit models with plasma-sheath and electron plasma frequency resonances easily
identifiable. Clear transitions between capacitive and inductive modes as predicted by the model are
identified. Sheath thickness and absolute electron density are determined from the location of these
transitions. The absolute electron density indicated by the location of the impedance resonance is
compared to measurements using the plasma oscillation method. © 2005 American Institute of
Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.1847608]

I. INTRODUCTION
The impedance of a probe in a plasma as a means of
obtaining information about the plasma’s characteristics is an
attractive diagnostic for use in situations where more con-
ventional Langmuir probes and charge collectors are inad-
equate. In early experiments by Harp and Crawford1 inves-
tigating this technique, the Q of a spherical probe immersed
in a plasma was used to estimate the plasma-sheath reso-
nance frequency. Harp explained that a caveat of this mea-
surement technique was that the impedance of the cable con-
nected to the probe has to be small compared to the
impedance of the sphere. Subsequent authors2,3 have per-
formed experiments where the plasma-sheath resonance was
observed by changing the plasma density while keeping the
frequency of the signal applied to the probe constant. Dote4
measured the resonant frequencies of planar and spherical
probes in a magnetized plasma by measuring the dc compo-
nent of the probe current while sweeping the frequency.
More recently, plasma-sheath resonances have been observed
in a capacitively coupled discharge.5
Quantitative measurements of the impedance itself are
rarer to find in the literature because of the difficulties asso-
ciated with eliminating stray capacitances and impedances in
the probe circuit. The best examples can be found in sound-
ing rocket experiments on ionospheric plasmas. Oya6 in-
cluded the capacitance of the metallic boom connected to a
spherical probe, compensating for stray capacitance using a
bridge circuit. Over the frequency range of the experiment,
0.5– 16 MHz, the boom could be considered electrically
short enough so that its inductance could be neglected.
Jensen7 measured changes in electron density using a phase
locked loop circuit to track the frequencies at which a small
antenna immersed in a plasma had an impedance that was
large and nonreactive. More recently Steigies et al.8 used a
capacitive bridge-type circuit with a strip antenna. However,
all of these experiments were performed in low density plas-
a)
Current address: SFA, Inc., Landover, Maryland 20785; electronic mail:
davidb@ccs.nrl.navy.mil
mas such that ␻pe / 2␲ is less than 20 MHz. They also re-
quired custom designed electronics to overcome circuit
effects.
An experimentally simpler approach by Bilen et al.9 in-
volved using a network analyzer to measure the impedance
of a small monopole antenna immersed in the plume of a
Hall effect plasma thruster. In that experiment the probe was
modeled as a parallel circuit, with a resonance in the imped-
ance occurring when the capacitive reactance of the probe
cancelled the inductive reactance of the plasma electrons.
The impedance itself was derived from the reflection coeffi-
cient S11 measured with the network analyzer. Other tech-
niques based on the S parameters measured by a network
analyzer are the wave cutoff measurements by Kim et al.10
and plasma absorption probe by Kokura et al.11
In this article we evaluate and build on the network ana-
lyzer impedance technique by better defining the probe pa-
rameters quantitatively using a spherical radiator which lends
itself to simple analysis. This allows us to generate theoreti-
cal curves to compare with experimental impedance curves,
and allows evaluation of the technique under controlled con-
ditions. The plasma source is already well diagnosed and
produces cold collisionless plasmas such that the experiment
is more closely aligned with theory. Our analysis also in-
cludes the series resonance introduced by the sheath sur-
rounding the probe. This resonance creates another zero
crossing for the probe reactance. We found that the minimum
value of the magnitude of S11 occurred at this series reso-
nance, rather than at the parallel resonance.
II. THEORETICAL IMPEDANCE
A spherical capacitor of radius ␳ surrounded by a uni-
form, infinite plasma, biased at the plasma potential V p, will
have a capacitance given by
C = 4 ␲ ⑀ 0⑀ r␳ 共1兲
with

0034-6748/2005/76(2)/023503/6/$22.50 76, 023503-1 © 2005 American Institute of Physics

Downloaded 12 Apr 2013 to 137.99.31.134. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://rsi.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
023503-2 Blackwell, Walker, and Amatucci Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 023503 (2005)

FIG. 1. Circuit model of the probe plasma impedance.

␻pe
2
⑀r = 1 − , 共2兲
␻共␻ − j ␯兲
where ␯ is the total electron collision frequency. If the sphere
is at a potential different from V p, a sheath will form between
its surface and the plasma. The overwhelming majority of the
sheath impedance is capacitive, so the total impedance of the
probe and plasma can be written as if it were a capacitance in
series with a tank circuit, as shown in Fig. 1. The circuit
elements are given by a sheath capacitance Csh, the vacuum FIG. 2. From Eqs. (4) and (5), the real and imaginary parts of the impedance
capacitance C0 = 4␲⑀0␳, an inductor L p = ␻pe −2 −1
C0 , and a resis- Z = R + jX of a 19-mm-diam metal sphere immersed in a cold 共Te = 0.5 eV兲
unmagnetized plasma with ␯ / ␻pe = 0.01 and a sheath width of 5␭D.
tance R p = ␯L p, with the impedance given by

冑
1 1
Z= + . 共3兲 s
j␻Csh 1 ␻1 ⬇ ␻pe , 共8兲
j ␻C0 + ␳ + 2s
R p + j ␻L p
The sheath capacitance represents the capacitance of the re- ␻2 ⬇ ␻pe . 共9兲
gion between the probe surface and the plasma, while the Equations (4) and (5) are plotted in Fig. 2 for ␦ = 0.01, an
tank circuit represents the impedance between the sheath electron density ne = 1 ⫻ 108 cm−3 and ␳ matching the experi-
edge at the probe to the sheath edge at the chamber wall. mental value of 9 mm. At the point ␻ → ␻2 ⬇ ␻pe both the
Implied in this model is that the plasma is uniform over a real and imaginary parts grow very large, making the plasma
scale length much larger than the probe radius. This circuit frequency very easy to identify. Figure 3 shows the phase of
model is identical to that outlined in Lieberman12 for a par- the impedance where we can see the nature of the load
allel plate capacitive discharge; the only modifications are changes from capacitive to inductive and back again as ␻ is
that a spherical geometry is used and the sheath capacitance decreased and the sign of the imaginary part changes.
Csh, representing the sheath between the vacuum vessel and
the plasma, is neglected, owing to the much larger area of the
space chamber with respect to the probe surface area. III. EXPERIMENT
Equation (3) can be rearranged using the definitions of A. Measurement of impedance
R p and L p and defining ␥ = ␻ / ␻pe and ␦ = ␯ / ␻pe to write
An arbitrary impedance ZL terminating a transmission
1 ␦ line with characteristic impedance Z0 and length ᐉ will ap-
Re共Z兲 = , 共4兲
␻peC0 共␥ − 1兲2 + ␥2␦2
2
pear as a transformed impedance at the other end of the line
given by
C0关共␥2 − 1兲2 + ␥2␦2兴 + Csh关共␥2 − 1兲␥2 + ␥2␦2兴
Im共Z兲 = − .
␻peC0Csh关共␥2 − 1兲2 + ␥2␦2兴
共5兲
The imaginary part of the impedance given by Eq. (5) goes
to zero at two points in frequency space given by solutions to
the quadratic equation
u2 + ␤u + ␦2 = 0 共6兲
with u = ␥ − 1 and ␤ = ␦ + Csh / 共C0 + Csh兲. If we assume that
2 2

the sheath is a vacuum region between the surface of the

probe and the plasma with thickness s then it follows that
Csh ␳+s
= . 共7兲
C0 + Csh ␳ + 2s
For ␳ Ⰷ s, this is a term of order unity; for most plasmas ␦2 FIG. 3. The phase of the impedance from Fig. 2 showing transitions be-
Ⰶ 1 so that the roots of Eq. (6) are, in frequency space tween inductive and capacitive modes as the solutions to Eq. (6).

Downloaded 12 Apr 2013 to 137.99.31.134. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://rsi.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
023503-3 Plasma impedance measurements Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 023503 (2005)

FIG. 4. Illustration of the spherical rf probe. The calibration is done by

removing the sphere and attaching a 50 ⍀ load or short to the exposed tip
with the return lead as short as possible and attached to the outer jacket of
the coax. An open circuit is calibrated with nothing being attached; this
eliminates almost all of the contribution from the capacitance between the
sphere and the jacket.

FIG. 5. Measured magnitude and phase (solid lines) of the impedance of the
ZL cos共kᐉ兲 + jZ0 sin共kᐉ兲 rf probe in vacuum compared with the calculated values (dashed lines) for a
ZT = Z0 . 共10兲 19-mm-diam metal sphere. The noise spikes are thought to be due to cham-
Z0 cos共kᐉ兲 + jZL sin共kᐉ兲 ber resonances.
The complex impedance ZT is obtained by using a HP8735D
network analyzer to measure the reflection coefficient ⌫,
B. Plasma oscillation method
given by
The plasma oscillation method is a technique which
ZT − Z0 takes advantage of the two stream instability to deduce the
⌫= 共11兲
ZT + Z0 electron density. It is a fairly well developed diagnostic13,14
so we will only briefly outline the principle of operation.
with Z0 the internal impedance of the analyzer, which in this
When a beam plasma system is present, the instability is
experiment is also 50 ⍀. To approximate this system, the
described by the complex solutions to the dispersion relation
probe mount was itself made from 50 ⍀ semirigid coax. One
for electrostatic waves in a cold, collisionless plasma given
end of the coax was cut away to expose a short length
by linear perturbation theory
共5 mm兲 of the inner conductor, while the other end was
mounted to a vacuum feedthrough and connected to a long
␻pe
2
␩␻pe
2
piece of double shielded RG 400 50 ⍀ cable. Electrically, 1= + 共12兲
the circuit looks like a long 50 ⍀ cable terminated with a ␻2 共␻ − ku兲2
5-mm-long wire. At this point we follow a calibration pro- with ␩ ⬅ nb / ne the ratio of beam to plasma electrons and u
cedure where, for each one of these loads, the operator indi- the beam velocity. If we were to plot the roots of Eq. (12),
cates that there is an open circuit 共⌫ = 1兲, a short circuit 共⌫ we would find that the imaginary part peaks at
= −1兲, or a 50 ⍀ load 共⌫ = 0兲 while connecting to the tip a
50 ⍀ load, short to the outer jacket, or open circuit (nothing
connected). We know what value ⌫ would have if there were
no cabling between the load and the network analyzer; the
␻I = ␻pe 冋 冑冉 冊
1
2
1
3 ␩
2
1/3
−
1
4 2
冉 冊
冑3 1 ␩
2/3
+ ¯ . 册 共13兲

calibration consists of programming the analyzer to add This peak corresponds to the most unstable wave in the spec-
phase shifts to the value of ⌫ to cancel out the phase shift trum, with the real part given by

冋 冉 冊 册
from the cable. Care must be taken in constructing loads to
attach to the tip so that when the short and matched load are
attached to the tip one introduces only negligible phase shifts ␻R = ␻pe 1 −
1 1
2 2
␩
1/3
+
3
4
冉 冊
冑3 1 ␩
2
2/3
+ ¯ . 共14兲
from stray inductance and capacitance. The open circuit cali-
bration must be done with the exposed tip far removed from If ␩ is sufficiently small then ␻R ⬇ ␻pe. The plasma oscilla-
other conductors to prevent misreading of its capacitance tion method works by introducing a weak electron beam into
(which is subtracted by the phase shifts). If this procedure is the plasma and monitoring the frequency spectrum with an
done correctly, the sphere when attached should read as a antenna to get ␻pe. For our experiment, a small filament
capacitive load with a numerical value given by (1). We which also doubled as a Langmuir probe and an emissive
found that the most common sources of error in this proce- probe was heated and negatively biased to −100 V while the
dure are poorly chosen short and load terminations. Figure 4 antenna used was the spherical impedance probe which was
shows how the probe tip is constructed from 1 / 4 in. semi- now input to a HP8591 1.8 GHz spectrum analyzer. The
rigid coax with the outer jacket and dielectric removed to spectrum of the background plasma with the filament turned
expose a short length at the tip. Figure 5 shows the measured off was recorded and subtracted from the spectrum with the
phase and amplitude obtained as well as the expected theo- filament turned on to eliminate most of the noise in the sys-
retical values for the 19-mm-diam sphere used for frequen- tem. The setup for the plasma oscillation measurements and
cies up to 300 MHz. sample data is shown in Figs. 6 and 7.

Downloaded 12 Apr 2013 to 137.99.31.134. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://rsi.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
023503-4 Blackwell, Walker, and Amatucci
FIG. 6. Setup for measurement of ␻pe using the plasma oscillation method.
C. Experimental setup
The Space Physics Simulation Chamber at the Naval Re-
search Laboratory has been described in several earlier
experiments.15 A very large vacuum vessel (⬇2 m diameter
by 5 m length) is filled to a pressure of p ⬇ 10−4 Torr argon
and surrounded by a weak magnetic field 共B0 ⬇ 3 G兲 such
that ⍀e Ⰶ ␻ , ␻pe. A uniform, weakly ionized 共n ⬇ 107 − 109兲
plasma is created with a large array of glowing tungsten
filaments biased at −100 V. The electron and ion tempera-
FIG. 7. Spectrum analyzer data of the signal picked up by the sphere with
no driving rf applied and a −100 V electron beam injected into the back-
ground plasma using an emissive probe in close proximity. The bump in the
spectrum is the electrostatic oscillation associated with the two stream in-
stability. The electron density is varied in the range 107 – 108 cm−3 by chang-
ing the source filament heater voltage from 50 to 58 V. The magnetic field
is 1.5 G and the neutral pressure is 3.4⫻ 10−4 Torr argon.
Downloaded 12 Apr 2013 to 137.99.31.134. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://rsi.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 023503 (2005)
FIG. 8. Illustration of experimental setup in the SPSC plasma.
tures are typically Te ⬇ 0.5 and Ti ⬇ 0.05 eV. The electron
density is measured with a heated Langmuir probe mounted
in proximity to the sphere. A drawing of the experiment is
shown in Fig. 8.
IV. SOURCES OF ERROR
The principle source of error in the impedance measure-
ment is incorrect calibration of the network analyzer arising
from unwanted phase shift or loss from either the cables or
from poor terminations. Several iterations of probe shaft de-
signs, coax cables, and matched loads had to be tried before
we could reproduce an expected vacuum characteristic of the
sphere impedance. Particular emphasis should be placed on
choosing sufficiently shielded coax cables so that the imped-
ance characteristics are not changed as cables are moved
around during the experiment. Another source of error was
FIG. 9. Experimental curves of the real and imaginary parts of the imped-
ance Z = R + jX for a plasma with ne ⬇ 6 ⫻ 107 cm−3, neutral pressure of 3.4
⫻ 10−4 argon, 1.5 G magnetic field, and Te ⬇ 0.5 eV. The changes in sign of
the imaginary part are the solutions from Eq. (6).
023503-5 Plasma impedance measurements Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 023503 (2005)

FIG. 10. The plasma frequency f pe = ␻pe / 2␲ from the impedance curve vs
that obtained using the plasma oscillation method. FIG. 12. The plasma sheath resonance frequency 共␻1兲 vs the impedance
resonance frequency 共␻2兲. The dashed line is the theoretical value inferred
from probe measurements and assuming a sheath width of s = 5␭D.
noise introduced by reflected radiation from objects near the
probe. At higher frequencies, standing wave modes could be
generated in the chamber as the wavelength became compa- terial and still function normally. This is an important im-
rable to the chamber dimensions, and this introduced addi- provement over Langmuir probes, where in the past we have
tional noise to the characteristics. The error in the plasma demonstrated that contamination of the probe is an issue
oscillation measurement is partially due to the broadening of when obtaining characteristics.15,16 The source filament
the peak in the spectrum analyzer signal, which was worse at emission was varied by changing the magnetic field from
the higher magnetic field of 3 G. approximately 1.5 to 3 G and increasing the filament cur-
rent. At each point we could record ␻2 from the plasma
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION impedance curve and ␻pe from the plasma oscillation spec-
trum. The impedance curves with and without the emissive
Figure 9 shows the imaginary and real parts of the probe
probe filament turned on were compared to make certain that
impedance in a typical plasma with ne = 108 cm−3 and a pres-
the beam electrons from the probe did not measurably alter
sure of 3.4⫻ 10−4 Torr. Also plotted is the sign of the reac-
the background electron density. These results are plotted
tance X which makes the frequencies ␻1 and ␻2 easy to
against one another in Fig. 10. The slope of the linear fit is
identify. The sphere was coated with a thin layer of insulat-
ing acrylic and the impedance characteristics were indistin-
guishable from the uncoated probe. This demonstrated that
the probe could become completely contaminated with ma-

FIG. 11. Electron density measured with a heated Langmuir probe vs FIG. 13. Magnitude of the reflection coefficient of the impedance probe vs
plasma frequency obtained from impedance measurements. The dashed line frequency as the plasma density is increased, with ne= (a) 0.17, (b) 0.29, (c)
is the theoretical value calculated from the formula ␻pe / 2␲ = 8.98⫻ 103冑ne. 0.65, (d) 1.9, and (e) 6.8⫻ 108 cm−3. Pressure is constant at 3.4
⫻ 10−4 Torr argon with 1.5 G magnetic field.

Downloaded 12 Apr 2013 to 137.99.31.134. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://rsi.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions
023503-6 Blackwell, Walker, and Amatucci Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 023503 (2005)

FIG. 15. The minimum value of ⌫ at the resonance frequency from mea-
surements vs the calculated value. Smaller values at increasing electron
density indicate a large energy deposition mechanism not accounted for by
electron neutral or electron ion collisions.

the location of the resonance is the same, the experimental

FIG. 14. Magnetic probe signal from a balanced b-dot probe positioned a
few cm away from the impedance probe corresponding to the conditions of
Fig. 13.
dip is much deeper and broader than what theory predicts,
requiring several orders of magnitude increase in our esti-
mate of the collision frequency.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
0.76, where perfect agreement between the two diagnostics
would give a slope of 1. Better agreement was obtained This work is supported by the Office of Naval Research
when comparing ␻pe from impedance measurements to that and DARPA.
deduced from Langmuir probe measurements (Fig. 11). 1
R. S. Harp and F. W. Crawford, J. Appl. Phys. 35, 3436 (1964).
Figure 12 shows the minimum frequency ␻1, also known 2
J. Uramoto, Phys. Fluids 13, 657 (1970).
as the plasma sheath resonance, versus the resonance fre- 3
R. L. Stenzel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 704 (1988).
quency ␻2 as the electron density is increased. The calcu- 4
T. Dote and T. Ichimiya, J. Appl. Phys. 36, 1866 (1965).
5
lated value of ␻1 is obtained by assuming a sheath thickness V. P. T. Ku, B. M. Annaratone, and J. E. Allen, J. Appl. Phys. 84, 6536
(1998).
s to be 5 Debye lengths ␭D. The value of ␭D is obtained 6
H. Oya and T. Obayashi, Rep. Ionos. Space Res. Jpn. 20, 199 (1966).
using the value of ␻2 as the plasma frequency and tempera- 7
M. D. Jensen and K. D. Baker, J. Spacecr. Rockets 29, 91 (1992).
8
ture measurements from the Langmuir probe. The average C. T. Steigies, D. Block, M. Hirt, B. Hipp, A. Piel, and J. Grygoczuk, J.
value of s calculated from ␻1 / ␻2 gives a value of approxi- Phys. D 33, 405 (2000).
9
S. G. Bilen, J. M. Haas, F. S. Gulczinski, A. D. Gallimore, and J. N.
mately 7 Debye lengths, which is on the order of that esti- Letoutchaia, AIAA-99-2714, 35th Joint Propulsion Conference, Los An-
mated by Harp and Crawford.1 geles, June, 1999.
10
An interesting feature of the impedance probe is that the J. Kim, D. Seong, J. Lim, and K. Chung, Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 4725
reflection coefficient ⌫ also has a dip near ␻ = ␻1, indicating (2003).
11
H. Kokura, K. Nakamura, I. P. Ghanashev, and H. Sugai, Jpn. J. Appl.
a large deposition of rf power. This dip in fact was incor- Phys., Part 1 38, 5262 (1999).
rectly interpreted in early work17,18 to be the plasma fre- 12
M. A. Lieberman and A. J. Lichtenberg, Principles of Plasma Discharges
quency. A balanced, wire loop b-dot probe in close proximity and Materials Processing (Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1994), p. 303.
13
to the impedance probe picked up a strong electromagnetic T. Shirakawa and H. Sugai, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 1 32, 5129 (1993).
14
A. Schwabedissen, C. Soll, A. Brockhaus, and J. Engemann, Plasma
signal near this same frequency, indicating a strong rf current Sources Sci. Technol. 8, 440 (1999).
15
being driven in the plasma. The size of the dip and the W. E. Amatucci et al., J. Geophys. Res. 103, 11711 (1998).
16
strength of the b-dot signal are seen in Figs. 13 and 14 to W. E. Amatucci et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 72, 2052 (2001).
17
T. H. Y. Yeung and J. Sayers, Proc. Phys. Soc. London, Sect. B 70, 663
increase quickly with electron density. Figure 15 shows that
(1957).
the minimum value of this curve corresponding to the same 18
K. Takayama, H. Ikegami, and S. Miyazaki, Phys. Rev. Lett. 5, 238
plasma conditions predicts almost no change in ⌫. Although (1960).

Downloaded 12 Apr 2013 to 137.99.31.134. This article is copyrighted as indicated in the abstract. Reuse of AIP content is subject to the terms at: http://rsi.aip.org/about/rights_and_permissions