Plasma sheath with multi-species of positive ions and surface produced negative ions

The structure of a plasma sheath has been investigated in front of a caesium-coated metallic plate, using a simple theoretical model. Along with the electrons, the plasma is composed of multi-species of positive ions, and surface and volume produced negative ions. While the volume produced negative ions are common in many plasma processing chambers, the surface produced negative ions are of critical importance, especially to the Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) systems. The surface negative ions are produced via the coated metallic plate. With a single species of positive ion, the Bohm criterion, which determines the sheath edge potential, is multi-valued for a specific range of electronegativity (${\alpha }_0$). The width of the multi-valued region has been reported to increase with the surface production yield ($\delta$). Calculations are done for hydrogen plasma with a slight admixture of a second gas such as argon. Besides discussing the differences brought in by the mere presence of a second ion, the paper highlights the importance of the positive ion current density in determining the Bohm criterion. In addition, the effect of three species of positive ions in the surface production process has been discussed. (© 2023 Wiley‐VCH GmbH)