Polarimetric Sensing of a High Frequency Discharge

Abstract

High frequency discharges and specially capacitive discharges represent laboratory plasma entities for which the spectropolarimetric characteristics of emission are very well pronounced. The specific structural nature of the capacitive discharge, if the frequency of the alternative field is lower than the electron Langmuir frequency, is determined by the localization of practically all alternative electric field within the thin electrode sheath. Only a small part of the high frequency field penetrates to the central parts of the plasma. These features of the discharge are reflected in its different local electron kinetics. The spectropolarimetric method described in this chapter appears to be a unique tool for the remote sensing of the structural plasma parameteres such as energy delivery and the internal electric field strength.