Electric field filamentation and higher harmonic generation in a very high frequency capacitive discharges

Abstract

The effects of the discharge voltage on the formation and nature of electric field transients in a symmetric, collisionless, very high frequency, capacitively coupled plasma are studied using a self-consistent particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation code. At a driving frequency of 60 MHz and 5 mTorr of argon gas pressure, the discharge voltage is varied from 10V to 150 V for a fixed discharge gap. It is observed that an increase in the discharge voltage causes filamentation in the electric field transients and to create multiple higher harmonics in the bulk plasma. Correspondingly, higher harmonics, up to 7th harmonic, in the discharge current are also observed. The power in the higher harmonics increases with a rise in the discharge voltage. The plasma density continues to increase with the discharge voltage but in a non-linear manner, whereas, the bulk electron temperature decreases. Meanwhile, the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) evolves from a Maxwellian at lower discharge voltages to a bi-Maxwellian at higher discharge voltages.

References in corpus (7)

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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
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Cited by in corpus (6)

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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