Experimental measurements of the total energy loss in low pressure inductively coupled argon plasma

Total energy lost per electron-ion pair lost ($\varepsilon _{T})$ was measured experimentally in a low pressure inductively coupled argon plasma. $\varepsilon _{T}$ represents not only the elastic and inelastic collision energy loss of electron-neutral but also the kinetic energy loss when the electron and ion escape to the wall. In order to determine $\varepsilon _{T}$, the modified power balance of a global model (spatially-averaged) is properly derived using some assumptions. A floating-type probe working at very low bias voltage ($\sim $1.0 V) was applied to obtain the electron temperature and plasma density at the plasma-sheath boundary. At 10 mTorr, the measurement shows that the measured $\varepsilon _{T} \sim $100 V gradually decreased with absorbed power and began to saturate. These $\varepsilon _{T}$ are consistent with the theoretical results by Lee \textit{et al} [1]. [1] Min-Hyong Lee, Sung-Ho Jang and Chin-Wook Chung, Phys. Plasmas, 13, 053502 (2006)