Influence of the inter-electrode gap on the cathode sheath characteristics (voltage drop across it and its thickness)

This paper is devoted to studying how the inter-electrode distance affects the voltage drop across electrodes, the cathode sheath thickness, and the axial distribution of plasma parameters. The experiment demonstrates the simultaneous growth of both the voltage drop across the electrodes and the cathode sheath thickness when on increasing the gap the anode is moved away from the cathode while remaining in the negative glow. This effect is most clearly pronounced under low gas pressure and high current values when the negative glow length is large. The discharge axial structure dynamics is studied with the Langmuir probe technique and with the OOPIC Pro code. The inter-electrode gap growth with the current fixed is found to be accompanied by the plasma concentration increase in the negative glow. The positive plasma potential is shown to cause the current to the grounded anode to be transported by fast electrons accelerated in the cathode sheath. Moving the anode away from the cathode through the negative glow weakens the flow of fast electrons coming to the anode, thus decreasing the discharge current. In order to restore the discharge current, one has to increase the voltage across the electrodes, leading to the cathode sheath thickness increase and the plasma concentration growth in the negative glow.