In order to characterize a nonequilibrium molecular plasma from the point of view of translational, vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom and their interaction, the characteristic temperatures of such a plasma were measured in an ICP rf reactor. Both pure nitrogen and argon–nitrogen mixture plasmas were examined for this purpose.The experimental results of rotational (Tr), vibrational (Tv) and electron (Te) temperatures are presented. Vibrational and rotational temperatures were measured as a function of nitrogen content for both E and H modes of ICP discharge using a power range of 45–200 W and pressure range of 2.6–13.3 Pa. Additionally, the pressure dependence of electron temperature in a pure nitrogen discharge was studied. Results show that rotational temperature is ≈370 K for E mode and ≈470 K for H mode and almost does not depend on either the applied rf power or the nitrogen content in the discharge. Vibrational temperature groups in the range 5000–12 000 K increase with applied rf power and constantly decay with an increase of nitrogen content. The measured values and behaviour of electron temperature are comparable with those for the positive column of the dc glow discharge. The results also prove that these three temperatures obey the classical inequality Te > Tv > Tr, as well as clarifying the differences in both vibrational and rotational temperature for different modes of the ICP discharge.

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