Testing a sheath-compensated Langmuir probe in geometrically and magnetically expanding plasmas

A sheath expansion around the Langmuir probe is known to give a significantly overestimated plasma density. Here, the sheath expansion effect suggested by Sheridan [Phys. Plasmas 7, 3084 (2000)] is successfully incorporated with no cumbersome analysis of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the planar probe by measuring local plasma potential, floating potential, and ion saturation current. The probe consists of an emissive probe and two planar Langmuir probes, and is tested in low-pressure geometrically and magnetically expanding plasmas. The electron temperature estimated from the difference between the local plasma and floating potentials in the geometrically expanding plasma is in good agreement with that obtained from a classical analysis of the I-V characteristics. The plasma density computed with taking into account the sheath expansion effect shows significantly lower values than that obtained from the classical density estimation. The measurements in the magnetically expanding plasma successfully reproduce both the presence of the high-temperature population of electrons near the last field lines intersecting the radial wall at the open source exit and the presence of cold electrons outside the last field lines. The presently proposed method will lead to easy access to the two- and/or three-dimensional diagnoses of the low-pressure plasma structures.