Plasma density and ion energy control via driving frequency and applied voltage in a low pressure capacitively coupled plasma discharge

Abstract

The dynamical characteristics of a single frequency low pressure capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) device under varying applied RF voltages and driving frequencies are studied using particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision simulations. An operational regime is identified where for a given voltage the plasma density is found to remain constant over a range of driving frequencies and to then increase rapidly as a function of the driving frequency. The threshold frequency for this mode transition as well as the value of the constant density is found to increase with an increase in the applied voltage. Over the constant density range, for a given voltage, the sheath width is seen to increase as a function of the increasing driving frequency, thereby changing the ion energy without affecting the ion density. Our parametric study thus indicates that the twin knobs of the applied voltage and driving frequency offer a means of independently controlling the density and the ion energy in a low pressure CCP device that may be usefully exploited for plasma processing applications.

arXiv comment5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (5)

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• The effect of the driving frequency on the confinement of beam electrons and plasma density in low pressure capacitive discharges
• Revisiting the anomalous rf field penetration into a warm plasma
• Influence of driving frequency on the metastable atoms and electron energy distribution function in a capacitively coupled argon discharge

Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Driving frequency effect on discharge parameters and higher harmonic generation in capacitive discharges at constant power densities
• High frequency sheath modulation and higher harmonic generation in a low pressure very high frequency capacitively coupled plasma excited by sawtooth waveform
• Ion energy distribution function in very high frequency capacitive discharges excited by sawtooth waveform
• Flux and energy asymmetry in a low pressure capacitively coupled plasma discharge excited by sawtooth-like waveform -- a harmonic study
• Discharge characteristics of a low-pressure geometrically asymmetric cylindrical capacitively coupled plasma with an axisymmetric magnetic field