Development of multiple Langmuir probe designs and user-friendly probe analysis techniques for low temperature plasmas at the Magnetized Plasma Research Labs (MPRL).

Langmuir probes are used as standard plasma diagnostic techniques in most low temperature plasma laboratories. However, depending on the specific experiment, modifications are necessary for achieving a particular goal. For example, in the RF powered linear plasma device Auburn Linear EXperiment for Instability Studies (ALEXIS), lack of RF-compensation of the Langmuir probes might lead to an artificially high electron temperature measurement. We plan to upgrade ALEXIS from a low power inductively coupled device to a higher power (~ 1 kW) helicon plasma device and hence we are constructing a new RF-compensated Langmuir probe necessary at the higher plasma densities. We also built a hook probe for the Magnetized Dusty Plasma eXperiment (MDPX) to study the perturbation due to a larger probe or a dust shaker. Finally, we are developing analysis codes using open-source programming, Python, for user-friendly Langmuir probe analysis techniques to measure the electron energy distribution functions and to test different theoretical models of Langmuir probe analysis.