Abstract
In order to obtain guidelines for design and operation of a new plasma source by a magnetic neutral loop discharge(NLD), the electron behavior was studied experimentally and numerically. Experimentally, the magnetic field gradient was changed over a wide range, and it was found that there existed an optimum value for efficient plasma production. Analyses of the electron behavior were performed using a model that included effects of a three dimensional electromagnetic field configuration considering the spatial decay of the electric field, and the limitation to the motion of electron caused by the existence of walls and thus electron loss at wall surfaces. These three dimensional factors were found to explain the existence of the optimum magnetic field gradient. It was shown that the L dependence of the plasma production efficiency was firstly decided by the finite decay length of the electric field strength, which was further modified by electron elastic collisions with neutral atoms which drove the electron to walls. The latter effect tends to reduce the optimum value of L.