Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

The gain and loss of energy by electrons in the RF-CCP sheath

Brian George Heil1,2, Ralf Peter Brinkmann3 and Uwe Czarnetzki1

Show affiliations


The exact mechanism for the heating of electrons in the sheath of radio frequency capacitively coupled plasma (RF-CCP) discharges is poorly understood. A hybrid one-dimensional model of a RF-CCP discharge is used to study this problem by tracking electron trajectories and electron energy change in the RF-CCP sheath. This study shows that the Ohmic electric field, the field due to conduction current, can have an effect on electron heating in the plasma sheath. Both the ambipolar and the Ohmic electric field can repel low energy electrons and reduce their interaction with the changing electric field in the sheath region. A comparison is made between the more realistic Brinkmann fluid sheath model and a hard wall approximation. For energetic electrons, the hard wall approximation accurately models electron heating. However, the hard wall approximation does not accurately model the heating of lower energy electrons or allow for electron losses to the electrode. A comparison is also made between the electron energy probability function calculated using a Monte Carlo simulation with and without the effects of the sheath.


PACS

52.40.Kh Plasma sheaths

52.50.Nr Plasma heating by DC fields; ohmic heating, arcs

52.80.Pi High-frequency and RF discharges

52.65.Pp Monte Carlo methods

Subjects

Plasma physics

Dates

Issue 8 (21 April 2009)

Received 18 February 2009, in final form 20 February 2009

Published 1 April 2009



Related review articles

What's this?
View review articles related to this research to gain an insight into the key trends in this subject area. Related review articles are selected based on PACS/MSC codes, and are no more than three years old.

  1. Molecular dynamics for low temperature plasma–surface interaction studies
  2. Dynamics of plasma–surface processes: E–R and L–H atom recombination reactions

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.