Background-Pressure Effects on Charge-Exchange Measurements in Plasma Flows at Elevated Pressures

Abstract

Charge-exchange (CEX) collisions can affect measurements of plasma plumes and neutralized ion flows in vacuum facilities, particularly when the background gas pressure increases and the CEX mean free path becomes comparable to the characteristic plume or facility dimension. Here, we investigate that regime in the plasma plume of a gridded ion source operating with a 400 eV argon ion beam. The fast-ion flux and low-energy ion flux were measured using a retarding potential analyzer (RPA) and planar probes, while the fast-neutral flux was inferred from deposited-power measurements with a thermal flux probe using a power-balance analysis. The low-energy ion flux increases with both background gas pressure and axial distance and its detection also depends on probe geometry. After the fast-ion component is isolated, its attenuation is described more accurately by an analytical reduced semi-empirical quasi-2D model that includes charge exchange and the experimentally observed plume divergence than by a one-dimensional attenuation law. The inferred fast-neutral flux also increases with pressure; however, the model underpredicts it at small axial distance and overpredicts it at elevated pressure and larger axial distance. This discrepancy suggests additional angular and collisional effects, as well as possible fast-neutral production near or inside the ion source, that are not captured by the present model. These results show that background gas pressure affects both the plasma plume and the diagnostic response, and that complementary electrostatic, thermal, and energy-selective diagnostics are required to distinguish source behavior from facility-induced effects.