RF cathode characteristics dependence on its design parameters

The paper studies the characteristics of the RF model of an inductive cathode-neutralizer operating on argon and its mixture with air, when changing the design parameters of the device: the diameter of the output port and the area of the ion collector. It has been experimentally shown that the largest electron current can be obtained with an output port with a diameter of 2.2 mm and an ion collector of the largest area. Provided that the voltage between the ion collector and the anode is less than 100 V, under all the conditions considered, there is a slight drop in the electron concentration compared to a purely inductive discharge in the cathode, at the same time the electron current to the anode increases greatly. The interpretation of the obtained results is carried out under the assumption that the discharge between the cathode and the anode is a combination of an inductive RF discharge and a DC discharge.