Measurement of the Neutral Particle Density in an Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma by Rayleigh Scattering

The neutral atom density in an electron cyclotron resonance plasma has been directly measured for the first time using a combination of Rayleigh and Thomson scattering. The measurements were made in the source region of a 3 mTorr argon discharge, and indicated that the neutral atom density was at least 50% less than would be expected at a gas pressure of 3 mTorr. The decrease in the neutral atom density is attributed to the effect of ion-neutral charge exchange collisions in the plasma. The accuracy of the measurement was found to depend on the contribution of metastable atoms to the measured scattered signal.