Pulse excited oscillation: A new high-precision excitation method for the charge-to-mass ratio determination of microparticles in plasma and comparison to stepwise excitation and the phase-resolved resonance method

Abstract

The charge-to-mass ratio of microparticles confined in the sheath of an RF plasma is the key parameter for the understanding and theoretical description of dusty plasmas. Standard techniques, like the resonance method (RM) and the phase-resolved resonance method (PRRM) based upon the harmonic oscillator model of the microparticle, are used to determine the charge-to-mass ratio. However, if high precision is required, these methods become relatively slow. In this work, we present two transient response-based methods, the step excited oscillation method, adapted and modified from Meijaard et al. [Phys. Plasmas 28, 083502 (2021)], and the new pulse excited oscillation method (PEOM). A careful comparison to the PRRM and others is presented. The PEOM offers a significant increase in speed while maintaining a precision comparable to that of the PRRM.