Electron temperature measurement in a surface-wave-produced argon plasma at intermediate pressures

The main objective of this work is to obtain the electron temperature in an argon surface-wave-produced plasma column at intermediate gas pressures. A fter proving that argon upper excited states remain in Excitation Saturatio n Balance, the value of electron temperature along the plasma column has be en obtained using a modified Saha equation and a corrected Boltzmann-plot. Moreover, the electron energy distribution function has been verified to be nearly Maxwellian in a 0.8-2.8 torr intermediate pressure range.