Experimental and theoretical evaluations of electron temperature in continuous electron beam generated plasmas

In this paper an experimental and theoretical evaluation of electron temperature in continuous, electron beam generated plasmas is presented. Spatial distributions of electron temperature and plasma density in pure and diluted argon were measured. The dependence of the electron temperature and plasma density on pressure, gas composition, hollow cathode voltage and magnetic field was investigated as well. It was observed that the electron temperature in argon was less than 1 eV and that a small addition of nitrogen reduced the electron temperature even more. The magnetic field, pressure and beam current did not strongly affect the electron temperature but greatly influenced the plasma density. The experimental findings are supported by analytical estimations of electron temperature in both noble and molecular gases.