Effects of electron emission on steady-state plasma sheaths

Making use of hydrodynamics theory, we have studied effects of electron emi ssion from a solid surface on steady-state argon plasma sheaths in which th e emitted electron-neutral atom collisions and the ion-neutral atom collisi ons are taken into account. Numerical results indicate that the effects of electron emission on the distributions of the sheath parameters such as the sheath electric field and the ion densities are obvious as the neutral gas density increases or the beam current density of the emitted electrons inc reases. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)07713-6].