Experimental Investigation of Surface Wave Plasma Excited by a Cylindrical Dielectric Rod

An improved surface wave plasma source equipped with a cylindrical quartz rod has been developed, which has great potential in processing inner wall of cylindrical workpieces. A cylindrical quartz rod not only excites the plasma around the rod, but also guides surface wave plasma along the rod. The distributions of plasma density and plasma temperature under different incident microwave powers and pressures are diagnosed by a Langmuir probe. The electron density near the rod is around the order of 10^11cm^-3. When the incident power is 450 W, the length of surface wave plasma column can reach up to 420 mm at 20 Pa.