Propagating double layers in electronegative plasmas

Double layers have been observed to propagate from the source region to the diffusion chamber of a helicon-type reactor filled up with a low-pressure mixture of Ar SF6 [N. Plihon, J. Appl. Phys. 98, 023306 (2005)]. In the present paper the most significant and new experimental results are reported. A fully self-consistent hybrid model in which the electron energy distribution function, the electron temperature, and the various source terms are calculated is developed to investigate these propagating double layers. The spontaneous formation of propagating double layers is only observed in the simulation for system in which the localized inductive heating is combined with small diameter chambers. The conditions of formation and the properties of the propagating double layers observed in the simulation are in good agreement with that of the experiment. By correlating the results of the experiment and the simulation, a formation mechanism compatible with ion two-stream instability is proposed.