Abnormal Heating of Low-Energy Electrons in Low-Pressure Capacitively Coupled Discharges
- Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784 (Korea, Republic of)
In low-pressure capacitively coupled plasmas, high-energy electrons are collisionlessly heated by large rf fields in the sheaths while low-energy electrons are confined in the bulk plasma by the ambipolar potential. Low-energy electrons are typically inefficiently heated due to their low collisionality and the weak rf electric field present in the bulk. It is shown, however, that as a result of the nonlinear interaction between the electron motion and the weak rf field present in the bulk, low-energy electrons can be efficiently heated. Electrons in the bulk that bounce inside the electrostatic potential well with a frequency equal to the rf excitation frequency are efficiently heated by the coherent interaction with the rf field. This resonant collisionless heating can be very efficient and manifest itself as a plateau in the electron energy probability function.
- OSTI ID:
- 20957685
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.085003; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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