Particle-in-cell simulation of ion energy distributions on an electrode by applying tailored bias waveforms in the afterglow of a pulsed plasma

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3573488· OSTI ID:21560164

Diomede, Paola; Economou, Demetre J; Donnelly, Vincent M ^[1]

---

1. Plasma Processing Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204-4004 (United States)

A Particle-in-Cell simulation with Monte Carlo Collisions (PIC-MCC) was conducted of the application of tailored DC voltage steps on an electrode, during the afterglow of a capacitively-coupled pulsed-plasma argon discharge, to control the energy of ions incident on the counter-electrode. Staircase voltage waveforms with selected amplitudes and durations resulted in ion energy distributions (IED) with distinct narrow peaks, with controlled energies and fraction of ions under each peak. Temporary electron heating at the moment of application of a DC voltage step did not influence the electron density decay in the afterglow. The IED peaks were 'smeared' by collisions, especially at the higher pressures of the range (10-40 mTorr) investigated.

• OSTI ID: 21560164
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3573488; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
AFTERGLOW
ARGON
COLLISIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRODES
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRONS
ENERGY SPECTRA
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY DISCHARGES
ION TEMPERATURE
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PLASMA
PLASMA SIMULATION
WAVE FORMS
CALCULATION METHODS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
FERMIONS
FLUIDS
GASES
LEPTONS
NONMETALS
RARE GASES
SIMULATION
SPECTRA