Measurement of the flow velocity in unmagnetized plasmas by counter propagating ion-acoustic waves

The diffusion velocity of an inhomogeneous unmagnetized plasma is measured by means of the phase velocities of ion-acoustic waves propagating along and against the direction of the plasma flow. Combined with the measurement of the plasma density distributions by usual Langmuir probes, the method is applied to measure the ambipolar diffusion coefficient and effective ion collision frequency in inhomogeneous plasmas formed in an asymmetrically discharged double-plasma device. Experimental results show that the measured flow velocities, diffusion coefficients, and effective collision frequencies are in agreement with ion-neutral collision dominated diffusion theory. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.