Viscous effects on motion and heating of electrons in inductively coupled plasma reactors
A transport model is developed for nonlocal effects on motion and heating of electrons in inductively coupled plasma reactors. The model is based on the electron momentum equation derived from the Boltzmann equation, retaining anisotropic stress components which in fact are viscous stresses. The resulting model consists of transport equations for the magnitude of electron velocity oscillation and terms representing energy dissipation due to viscous stresses in the electron energy equation. In this model, electrical current is obtained in a nonlocal manner due to viscous effects, instead of Ohm's law or the electron momentum equation without viscous effects, while nonlocal heating of electrons is represented by the viscous dissipation. Computational results obtained by two-dimensional numerical simulations show that nonlocal determination of electrical current indeed is important, and viscous dissipation becomes an important electron heating mechanism at low pressures. It is suspected that viscous dissipation in inductively coupled plasma reactors in fact represents stochastic heating of electrons, and this possibility is exploited by discussing physical similarities between stochastic heating and energy dissipation due to the stress tensor.
- Research Organization:
- Thermosciences Inst., Moffett Field, CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- OSTI ID:
- 20005562
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Vol. 27, Issue 5; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1999; ISSN 0093-3813
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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