Flush probe studies of plasma flow over a flat plate: experimental

Abstract

In an earlier paper (see ibid., vol.12, p.1685 (1979)) the authors developed two theoretical models which describe the DC and transient characteristics of a planar conductor immersed in a flowing plasma. The authors describe experiments which test this theory. Both low and high ion densities are used to study the respective cases of the ion sheath edge being far from the planar conductor and the ion sheath being inside the viscous boundary layer. Ion current to flush probes embedded in the conductor and to spherical probes near the conductor is used to verify the plasma behaviour predicted earlier.