Effect of Electron Energy Distribution Function on Power Deposition and Plasma Density in an Inductively Coupled Discharge at Very Low Pressures

Abstract

A self-consistent 1-D model was developed to study the effect of the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) on power deposition and plasma density profiles in a planar inductively coupled plasma (ICP) in the non-local regime (pressure < 10 mTorr). The model consisted of three modules: (1) an electron energy distribution function (EEDF) module to compute the non-Maxwellian EEDF, (2) a non-local electron kinetics module to predict the non-local electron conductivity, RF current, electric field and power deposition profiles in the non-uniform plasma, and (3) a heavy species transport module to solve for the ion density and velocity profiles as well as the metastable density. Results using the non-Maxwellian EEDF model were compared with predictions using a Maxwellian EEDF, under otherwise identical conditions. The RF electric field, current, and power deposition profiles were different, especially at 1mTorr, for which the electron effective mean free path was larger than the skin depth. The plasma density predicted by the Maxwellian EEDF was up to 93% larger for the conditions examined. Thus, the non-Maxwellian EEDF must be accounted for in modeling ICPs at very low pressures.

19 pages submitted to Plasma Sources Sci. Technol

References in corpus (1)

• Effect of non-local electron conductivity on power absorption and plasma density profiles in low pressure inductively coupled discharges

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Revisiting the anomalous rf field penetration into a warm plasma
• Self-consistent system of equations for a kinetic description of the low-pressure discharges accounting for the nonlocal and collisionless electron dynamics
• A New Hybrid Scheme for Simulations of Highly Collisional RF-Driven Plasmas
• Kinetic analysis of negative power deposition in low pressure plasmas