High and low frequency relaxation oscillations in a capacitive discharge plasma

Both high and low frequency relaxation oscillations have been observed in an argon capacitive discharge connected to a peripheral grounded chamber through a slot with dielectric spacers. The oscillations, observed from time-varying optical emission of the main discharge chamber, show, for example, a high frequency (46 kHz) relaxation oscillation at 100 mTorr, with an absorbed power near the peripheral breakdown, and a low frequency (2.7–3.7 Hz) oscillation, at a higher absorbed power. The high frequency oscillation is found to ignite a plasma in the slot, but usually not in the periphery. The high frequency oscillation is interpreted by using an electromagnetic model of the slot impedance, combined with the circuit analysis of the system including a matching network. The model is further developed by using a parallel connection of variable peripheral capacitance to analyse the low frequency oscillation. The results obtained from the model are in agreement with the experimental observations and indicate that a variety of behaviours are dependent on the matching conditions. (fluids, plasmas and electric discharges)