Time dependent plasma properties during microarcing in radio frequency plasmas.

We report experimental results for time dependent plasma properties during microarcing in a rf plasma system. A cutoff discriminator bias voltage can be defined as a parameter representing plasma potential. The cutoff voltage during the microarcing does not exactly follow the dependence of floating potential. The plasma/ion density increases significantly after microarc initiation and then reduces slowly. We propose that a significant number of electrons enter the plasma in the initial period of the microarc and gain very high energy. These high energy electrons lose their energy through a relatively slower process of collisions while generating a significantly higher plasma density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]