Study of the high-frequency inductive coupled discharge plasma interaction with walls

The high-frequency electrodeless light sources (HFELS) are widely used as bright radiators of narrow and intense spectral lines covering the region from VUV to IR. Special HFELS filled with pure helium at pressures from 0.2 to 5 Torr were prepared for diagnostics of interaction between the filling element and the wall material (glass). Pollution of the discharge plasma with the oxygen admixture was studied by spectroscopy. Atomic force microscopy experiments were performed to find modification of the wall surface at the nanoscale level. Release of oxygen by the walls is found to depend strongly on the discharge conditions and significant changes of the surface structure are detected after plasma treatment.