Spectroscopic measurements of the electron temperature in low pressure microwave 2.45 GHz argon plasma

Abstract

The main goal of this work is to obtain the plasma electron temperature Te by optical emission spectroscopy of low pressure microwave argon plasma, as a function of working pressure and microwave power. A plasma system was designed and constructed in our laboratory using a magnetron of domestic microwave oven with power 800W without any commercial part. The applied voltage on the magnetron electrical circuit is changed for the purpose of obtaining the variable values of the microwave power. The spectral detection is performed with a spectrometer of wavelength range (200−1000nm). The working pressure and magnetron applied voltage were 0.3-3.0mbar and 180-240V, respectively. Two methods had been applied to estimate the electron temperature, the ratio of two lines’ intensity and Boltzmann plot method. It was found that, for the plasmas investigated, an increase of the electron temperature when the applied voltage has been increasing, while the electron temperature decreases when the working pressure is increasing.