A method is described to predict the two-dimensional distributions of temperature, velocity and potential of free burning arcs and their electrodes for cathodes of tungsten and thoriated tungsten. The effects of non-equilibrium due to the ambipolar diffusion of charged particles are included for the calculation of the plasma electrical conductivity. The electron diffusion current is explicitly included in the solution of the current continuity equation. The plasma for the arc and the electrode sheath regions is treated as a continuum, so that the thickness of the non-equilibrium regions near the electrodes is determined within the model, depending upon the arc current and the arc and electrode configuration. This new treatment allows the calculation of the negative anode fall that may occur across the anode sheath when the electron diffusion current near the anode surface becomes larger than the total arc current. For a thoriated tungsten cathode we take the work function for cooling by electron emission to be that of tungsten, as, for small percentages of thoria in tungsten, cooling effects from electrons passing through the interfaces for tungsten-thoria and then thoria-plasma will add up to be that of a tungsten-plasma interface. Calculations have been made for arcs in argon at currents between 2.5 A and 200 A. For currents above 120 A, we calculate the anode fall voltage to be negative, being -2 V at 200 A. For currents less than 50 A, non-equilibrium effects in the plasma extend across the whole arc and electron number densities can be several orders of magnitude below the values for local thermodynamic equilibrium. Calculated arc voltages, arc temperatures and electrode temperatures are in agreement with experimental measurements to within 20%.
In this work, the microstructure transition from amorphous to microcrystalline silicon is defined in terms of the silane concentration in the plasma as opposed to the silane concentration in the input gas flow. In situ Fourier transform infrared absorption spectroscopy combined with ex situ Raman spectroscopy has been used to calibrate and validate this approach. Results show that a relevant parameter to obtain µc-Si : H from SiH 4 /H 2 mixtures is the plasma composition, which is determined not only by the gas dilution ratio but also by the silane depletion fraction. It is also shown that µc-Si : H can only be deposited efficiently, in terms of gas utilization, at a high rate by using high input concentration and depletion of silane.
Electromagnetic wave propagation effects can give rise to important limitations for processing uniformity in large area, radio-frequency (rf) capacitive plasma reactors. The electromagnetic wavefield solution is derived for a capacitive, high-frequency, cylindrical reactor with symmetric or asymmetric electrode areas containing a uniform plasma slab. It is shown that only two distinct electromagnetic modes are necessary and sufficient to determine the electromagnetic fields everywhere within the reactor except close to the sidewalls. The first mode gives rise to the interelectrode rf voltage standing wave effect associated with high frequencies in large area reactors, and the second mode gives rise to the telegraph effect associated with asymmetric electrode areas, which necessitates the redistribution of rf current along the plasma to maintain rf current continuity. This work gives a unified treatment of both effects which have previously been studied separately, experimentally and theoretically, in the literature. The equivalent circuit of each mode is also derived from its respective dispersion relation. Examples of this electromagnetic wavefield solution show that both modes can cause nonuniformity of the plasma rf potential, depending on the reactor geometry, excitation frequency and plasma permittivity and sheath width, which has consequences for large-area plasma processing.
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