Characteristics of the plasma impedance probe with constant bias

David D. Blackwell, David N. Walker, Sarah J. Messer, and William E. Amatucci

Citation: Physics of Plasmas (1994-present) 12, 093510 (2005); doi: 10.1063/1.2039627

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2039627
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 PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 12, 093510 共2005兲

Characteristics of the plasma impedance probe with constant bias

David D. Blackwell,a兲 David N. Walker, Sarah J. Messer, and William E. Amatucci
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Plasma Physics Division, Washington, DC 20375-5346
共Received 30 June 2005; accepted 1 August 2005; published online 26 September 2005兲
The impedance of a small spherical probe immersed in a uniform plasma is measured by recording
the reflection coefficient of an applied signal using a network analyzer. This impedance has a
resonance at the plasma frequency where the imaginary part goes to zero, a feature that has made
this measurement a good way of determining electron density. When the plasma potential is positive
with respect to the sphere—for example, if the sphere is electrically floating or grounded, a second
resonance occurs at ␻ ⬍ ␻ pe due to the capacitance created by the depleted electron density in the
sheath. A greatly increased power deposition occurs at this lower resonance, whose frequency can
be controlled by applying a dc bias which changes the sheath width. As the bias is increased the
value of this frequency becomes smaller until the resonance disappears completely at Vprobe
= Vplasma. As the bias is further increased past the plasma potential, an electron sheath forms with its
own resonance, which is at a lower frequency than the resonance associated with the ion sheath. The
impedance of the electron sheath can be approximated using sheath transit time perturbation theory
for a space charge limited diode. As with the ion sheath resonance, the largest energy deposition
occurs at the lower of the two resonant frequencies. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.
关DOI: 10.1063/1.2039627兴

I. INTRODUCTION Csh ␳+s

The plasma impedance probe is a diagnostic method
which has been used in various forms by several authors.1–6
In a previous paper7 we described a method of measuring the
absolute electron density in a plasma using a network ana-
lyzer to observe the resonant frequencies of the reflected sig-
nal from a probe in a plasma. The probe was a small sphere
whose impedance was determined by measuring the reflected
power when a radio-frequency 共rf兲 signal was applied. The
impedance was found to agree with the theoretical model
often found in the literature8,9 of a capacitance, representing
the sheath, in series with a tank circuit, representing the bulk
plasma, as shown in Fig. 1. The impedance Z of a sphere of
radius ␳ in a plasma with collision frequency ␯ and plasma
frequency ␻ pe can be written as
1 1
Z= + 共1兲
j␻Csh 1 floating, so that the potential is a few volts negative with
j ␻C0 +
R p + j ␻L p
with circuit elements written in terms of the plasma param-
eters as
C 0 = 4 ␲ ⑀ 0␳ ,
L p = ␻−2 −1
pe C0 ,
R = ␯L p
and the sheath capacitance a function of the sheath thickness
s as
a兲
Electronic mail: davidb@ccs.nrl.navy.mil
= . 共3兲
C0 + Csh ␳ + 2s
The impedance from Eq. 共1兲 has two resonant points in fre-
quency space where the reactance is zero. These are referred
to as the parallel and series resonances and are given by
␻1 ⬇ ␻ pe 冑 C0
Csh + C0
series resonance
共4兲
␻2 = ␻ pe parallel resonance.
It was found that the lowest reflected signal and maximum
energy deposition to the plasma occurred at the series reso-
nance which is below the electron plasma frequency. It is
implicit in this model that the probe is biased negatively
enough such that a vacuum sheath forms. In most experi-
ments the probe is either grounded through an impedance or
respect to the plasma potential. Because of the minimum of
the reflection coefficient, the series resonance is much more
visible in a variety of measurement techniques and can easily
be mistaken for the plasma frequency. Such an error would
give an incorrectly low value of the electron density, so it is
important that the characteristics of the impedance probe are
well understood.
The value of the sheath capacitance is dependent on the
共2兲
sheath thickness s. It should be possible to change the ca-
pacitance and tune the resonant frequency by applying bias
to the probe. Since this sheath resonance frequency is where
the reflection coefficient is minimum, we can control the
spectrum of rf power deposited into the plasma using a dc
voltage.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the probe
impedance and series resonance changes with applied bias.

1070-664X/2005/12共9兲/093510/7/$22.50 12, 093510-1 © 2005 American Institute of Physics

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 093510-2 Blackwell et al. Phys. Plasmas 12, 093510 共2005兲

FIG. 1. Circuit model of the plasma-probe impedance from Lieberman 共Ref.

8兲. The second capacitance C represents the sheath capacitance between the
plasma and the walls of the vacuum vessel, which because of its much larger
value can be neglected compared to the probe sheath capacitance.

Particularly we are interested in the impedance characteris-

tics as this bias is changed from negative 共ion sheath兲 to
positive 共electron sheath兲. To our knowledge, experimental
measurements of the rf impedance of a biased probe over
such a voltage range have not been previously published.

II. REVIEW OF THEORY

A. Negatively biased probe
When the probe is negatively biased, the sheath that de-
velops around the probe forms a region depleted of electrons
of thickness s共␾兲, with ␾ the negative potential relative to
the plasma potential. The impedance of the depleted layer
can be written as the capacitance between concentric spheres
with radii of ␳ and ␳ + s as in Eq. 共3兲. The sheath thickness
s共␾兲 can be written as a modified Child–Langmuir law as
FIG. 2. Calculated magnitude 共a兲 and phase 共b兲 of the probe-plasma imped-
ance with varying applied negative bias w.r.t. the plasma potential. The
extrema of the magnitude and zero crossings of the phase correspond to the
sheath-plasma 共series兲 and plasma 共parallel兲 resonances. Increasing the bias
pushes the series resonance closer to the parallel resonance at the plasma
frequency. For all computed curves, the plasma electron density used was
4 ⫻ 107 cm−3 and the electron temperature was 0.5 eV.

s共␾兲 = 共2.5 − 1.87e−0.39␳/␭d兲 冉 冊

e␾
kTe
2/5
␭d 共5兲 conditions is a quite complicated analytical procedure which
is based on a perturbation solution to Llewellyn’s equation:11
with ␭d the Debye length. This expression for the sheath
m ⳵ 3x
thickness is an analytic function fit to the numerical calcula- J共t兲 = ⑀0 . 共6兲
tions of Laframboise.10 This value of s can be substituted e ⳵t3
into 1 to get the total impedance of the sphere in the plasma Equation 共6兲 is successively integrated from t to t0 to get
as a function of potential ␾. Figure 2 shows the calculated expressions for the electron acceleration, velocity, and posi-
impedance at several voltages. Throughout this paper, for all tion. These expressions are then expanded in terms of a per-
calculated plots, the plasma electron density assumed was turbed sheath transit time, such that t − t0 = T + ␦共t兲. The per-
4 ⫻ 107 cm−3 and the electron temperature was 0.5 eV. Both turbed transit time ␦共t兲 is found by assuming that the
of these are typical numbers for the plasmas produced in our perturbation is small enough such that the unperturbed and
space chamber. The sheath plasma resonance, noted by the electron perturbed position x may be taken as equivalent.
minimum of the amplitude or by the first zero phase crossing This perturbed transit time is then used to find the perturbed
as the frequency is increased, can be seen to increase with velocity and acceleration. The impedance can be calculated
increasing negative bias, pushing it closer to the plasma po- by integrating the ac electric field, which can be written as a
tential. Conversely, the series resonance decreases as the bias
is decreased until at the plasma potential it disappears, which
is the physical result expected since the sheath also disap-
pears. The reflection coefficient corresponding to this is
shown as a contour plot in Fig. 3. The narrow dark line
represents a minimum in this coefficient, and a maximum
power deposition, associated with the series resonance.

B. Positively biased probe

When the probe is positively biased, the sheath is no
longer depleted of electrons; in fact it is electron-rich, so the
impedance cannot be considered to be a capacitance. The
best approximation of the impedance of an electron-rich
FIG. 3. Calculated magnitude of the complex reflection coefficient ⌫ = Z
sheath is borrowed from the calculations of the impedance of − Z0 / Z + Z0 vs applied negative bias and frequency. The darkest swath of the
a parallel plate diode. Calculating the impedance under these contour indicates a maximum power deposition around the series resonance.
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 093510-3 Characteristics of the plasma impedance probe… Phys. Plasmas 12, 093510 共2005兲

linear function of the acceleration, from the sheath edge to

the probe surface, or equivalently, integrating over the sheath
transit time. The algebraic steps involved in this procedure
are too long to include in this paper, but a good reference
where everything is explicitly worked out can be found in
Chap. 2 of Birdsall’s Electron Dynamics of Diode Regions
共1966兲.12 The result is an expression for the sheath imped-
ance for a probe in terms of the sheath transit time

Z+共␤,T兲 =
T2
2␤
冋 冉
␨
1− 1−
3
12S共␤兲
␤3
冊册 共ve0 + ve兲
4 ␲ ␧ 0␳ 2
共7兲

with

␤ = i␻T, ve0 = 冑 kTe

m
,

ve = 冑 2e␾
m
, ␨=
ve0 − ve
ve0 + ve
, 共8兲

S共␤兲 = 2 − 2e−␤ − ␤ − ␤e−␤ .

The sheath transit time itself can be expressed as a function
of the DC probe bias as FIG. 4. 共a兲 Calculated magnitude of the imaginary part of the probe-plasma

冕 冉 冊
s共␾兲
impedance vs frequency at a bias of ±5 V w.r.t. the plasma potential. 共b兲
−1/2
e⌽共x兲 Real part of the probe impedance for the positively biased probe showing a
T= −1
ve0 1+ . 共9兲 zero crossing at ␻T = 2␲.
0 kTe

The potential ⌽共x兲 is derived from Eq. 共5兲 as

冉 冊
trated more clearly in Fig. 6 where we have plotted the mag-
s共␾兲 + ␳ − x 5/2
nitude of the calculated reflection coefficient ⌫ for the sphere
⌽共x兲 = ␾ . 共10兲
s共␾兲 at both positive and negative bias. The minimum of 兩⌫兩
around this resonance indicates maximum power deposition
For the positively biased sheath, the sheath impedance of Eq. into the plasma. We can see that also that this minimum is
共7兲 takes the place of the sheath capacitance term in Eq. 共1兲, wider and shallower for the electron sheath than it is for the
assuming the sheath is sufficiently thin compared to the the
probe radius such that the parallel plate one-dimensional
analysis is valid. The imaginary part of electron sheath im-
pedance is capacitive in nature but is much smaller than the
ion sheath impedance, as shown in Fig. 4共a兲. Unlike the ion
sheath, the electron sheath impedance also has a real part.
The real part of the electron sheath impedance in Fig. 4共b兲
actually changes signs when the sheath transit time is on the
order of one RF period, 2␲ ⬍ ␻T ⬍ 3␲. This sign change has
been observed in the past in higher density plasmas as a
sheath plasma instability.13
The impedance of the positively biased probe is then the
summation of the sheath impedance and the bulk plasma
impedance:
1
Z = Z+共␤,T兲 + . 共11兲
1
j ␻C0 +
R p + j ␻L p
Equation 共11兲 is plotted for several voltages in Fig. 5. We can
see that the parallel resonance is unaffected by the new
sheath impedance term just as in the negatively biased ion
sheath case. The series resonance is also at a slightly lower
value than it was for the ion sheath. It is important to note
FIG. 5. Calculated magnitude 共a兲 and phase 共b兲 of the probe-plasma imped-
that even with the probe biased positively, the series reso-
ance with varying applied positive bias w.r.t. the plasma potential. The series
nance, instead of disappearing, is essentially very similar to resonance is no longer as sharp due to the resistive component of the elec-
the plasma sheath resonance for negative bias. This is illus- tron sheath impedance.
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 093510-4 Blackwell et al.
FIG. 6. Calculated magnitude of the reflection coefficient ⌫ at a bias of
±5 V w.r.t. the plasma potential showing the broader resonance of the elec-
tron sheath.
ion sheath. When we reach the zero crossing in the electron
sheath impedance at ␻T = 2␲, the reflection coefficient be-
comes larger than one, but the deviation is very small. Figure
7 shows a contour plot of 兩⌫兩 as the sheath bias and driving
frequency are varied.
III. EXPERIMENTAL ARRANGEMENT
A. Plasma source
The Space Physics Simulation Chamber at the U.S. Na-
val Research Laboratory 共NRL兲 has been described in recent
papers.7,14 The chamber is a 2-m diameter, 5-m-long vacuum
vessel surrounded by five 3-m diameter magnet coils. In this
experiment the magnetic field was kept at very low levels
共B ⬍ 5G兲 such that ␻ce Ⰶ ␻ pe , ␻ pi. The chamber is filled to a
pressure of p ⬇ 10−4 Torr argon. A weakly ionized 共n ⬇ 107
− 109 cm−3兲 plasma is created with a 1-square-meter array of
glowing tungsten filaments biased at −100 V. The electron
density is measured two ways: 1兲 by reading the parallel
resonance frequency from the impedance measurement; and
2兲 with a heated Langmuir probe mounted close to the
sphere. Typical electron and ion temperatures are typically
Te ⬇ 0.5 eV and Ti ⬇ 0.05 eV.
FIG. 7. Calculated magnitude of the complex reflection coefficient ⌫ = Z
− Z0 / Z + Z0 vs applied positive bias and frequency, showing a more smeared
out energy deposition compared to the negatively biased probe.
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Phys. Plasmas 12, 093510 共2005兲
FIG. 8. Experimental setup used to measure probe impedance with applied
bias.
B. Measurement of impedance
The complex impedance Z of the probe is obtained by
using a HP 8753-D network analyzer to measure the complex
reflection coefficient ⌫, given by
Z − Z0
⌫= 共12兲
Z + Z0
with Z0 the internal impedance of the analyzer, which in this
experiment is 50 ⍀. The impedance that we are interested in
is that of a sphere in a plasma, but what we initially get is the
impedance of the sphere plus whatever cabling connects the
sphere to the network analyzer. An additional complication is
that we also have to apply a dc bias to the probe with a
power supply. The network analyzer will see a terminal im-
pedance of this entire assembly, not just the sphere at the
end, which is a very small part. The extra impedance from
the cable and probe shaft can be compensated for by cali-
brating the analyzer to ignore everything up to the very tip
where the sphere is attached. The probe should therefore be
constructed such that the sphere is removable and an electri-
cal short or 50 ⍀ load can be put in its place with no addi-
tional cabling. One at a time, the operator indicates that there
is an open circuit 共⌫ = 1兲, a short circuit 共⌫ = −1兲, or a 50 ⍀
load 共⌫ = 0兲. The network analyzer then adjusts internal
phase and amplitude filters until these values of ⌫ are visible
at the terminal. The setup for the experiment and measure-
ment circuit is shown in Fig. 8.
IV. RESULTS
Figure 9 shows the magnitude and phase of the imped-
ance calculated from the measured reflection coefficient
when the sphere is negatively biased. If we compare this to
Fig. 2 we can see that the most obvious difference between
the theoretical and experimental curves is that experimen-
tally we observe a splitting of the parallel resonance into two
peaks on the impedance magnitude curves. This can be ex-
plained with a slight modification to the theory to include a
presheath region where the density profile gradually rises
after the sheath region. The impedance can be found using a
more general expression to include a density gradient:
 093510-5 Characteristics of the plasma impedance probe… Phys. Plasmas 12, 093510 共2005兲

FIG. 9. Measured probe impedance magnitude 共a兲 and phase 共b兲 in an argon
plasma with ne = 1.6⫻ 108 cm−3, P = 0.29 mTorr, and Te = 0.5 eV with vary-
ing applied negative bias.

Z=−
1
j ␻4␲⑀0
冕冉
␳
⬁
1−
␻2pe共r兲
␻共␻ − i␯兲
冊 −1
dr
r2
. 共13兲

The effect of this is to add another peak to the impedance

curve as shown in Fig. 10. This multiple resonance behavior
is analogous to the Tonks–Dattner resonances15 in a cylindri-
cal plasma.
The series resonance is easily identifiable in the imped-
ance curves as either the minimum of the impedance magni-
tude or the first zero crossing in phase. There is excellent
theoretical agreement with the experimental results in that
the series resonance moves to the right as more bias is ap-
plied to the probe.
Figure 11 shows the impedance curves when positive
bias is applied to the sphere. The more rounded series reso-
nance minimum seen agrees with the predicted theoretical
curves in Fig. 5. As with the ion sheath, an increase in po-
tential moves this resonance closer to the parallel resonance.
Contour plots of the magnitude of the reflection coeffi-
cient and the phase of the impedance are shown in Figs.
12–14. As the voltage is swept from negative to positive, the
series resonance is identifiable as the region where 兩⌫兩 is
minimum. The associated phase crossing 共the white dotted
line兲 indicates one crossing at the plasma frequency and one
crossing at the sheath plasma resonance. We can see that
when we sweep the voltage through the plasma potential the
series resonance disappears completely, but reappears as we
keep increasing the bias to obtain an electron sheath. We also
note that the energy deposition associated with this reso-
nance on the electron side of the curve is much broader when
compared to resonance on the ion side, an observation which
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FIG. 10. The effect of calculating the impedance using an ion sheath with a
gentler gradient outside the sheath region 共a兲 yields a second parallel reso-
nance which appears as an extra peak in the magnitude 共b兲 and dip in the
phase 共c兲.
is in agreement with the theory. The relative values of the ion
and electron sheath resonance frequencies and the shape of
the contours are also in excellent agreement with the theo-
retical predictions.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Measurements of the impedance of a spherical probe in a
plasma as the bias on the probe is changed from negative to
positive are presented for the first time. For negative bias, the
ion sheath creates a sheath-plasma resonance at a frequency
below the plasma frequency where the reflection coefficient
is minimum and energy absorbed by the plasma is maximum.
As the voltage on the probe moves more positive toward the
plasma potential, the resonance frequency decreases in a
manner consistent with theory, until at the plasma potential it
disappears entirely.
As the potential is increased more positively, an electron
sheath takes the place of the ion sheath. The impedance of
 093510-6 Blackwell et al.
FIG. 11. Measured probe impedance magnitude 共a兲 and phase 共b兲 in an
argon plasma with under the same conditions as in Fig. 9 with varying
applied positive bias.
FIG. 12. 共a兲 Contour plot of the reflection coefficient 兩⌫兩 vs voltage and
phase showing both the electron and ion sheath impedance characteristics.
共b兲 Contour plot of the phase of the impedance with the dashed line showing
the zero crossings. The higher zero crossing which is unchanging with volt-
age is the parallel plasma resonance. The electron density is ne = 6
⫻ 107 cm−3 with Te = 0.5 eV.
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Phys. Plasmas 12, 093510 共2005兲
FIG. 13. Contour plot of ⌫ 共a兲 and ⬔Z 共b兲 at an electron density of ne
= 2.8⫻ 108 cm−3. The higher plasma frequency is evident when this plot is
compared to Fig. 12.
the electron sheath is calculated using a parallel plate diode
model formulated by Llewellyn and Birdsall.11,12 The imped-
ance has a resistive component as well as a capacitive com-
ponent. Both parts of the impedance are functions of the
electron sheath transit time as well as the other plasma pa-
rameters. The series resonance associated with the electron
FIG. 14. Contour plot of ⌫ 共a兲 and ⬔Z 共b兲 at an electron density of ne
= 9.7⫻ 108 cm−3. The plasma frequency at this density was off the frequency
calibration scale for the network analyzer but the series resonance is still
easily identifiable.
 093510-7 Characteristics of the plasma impedance probe… Phys. Plasmas 12, 093510 共2005兲

5
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Letoutchaia, AIAA-99-2714, 35th Joint Propulsion Conference, Los An-
lower than the ion sheath. Despite these differences, overall
geles, June, 1999.
the impedance characteristics for both positive and negative 6
P. Nikitin and C. Swenson, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag. 49, 1377
bias are qualitatively similar. 共2001兲.
7
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