This paper contains results of the detailed simulation study of the breakdown in low-pressure radio-frequency argon discharges. Calculations were performed by using a Monte Carlo code including electrons only, assuming that the influence of heavy particles is negligible. The obtained results are in a good qualitative agreement with the available experimental data and clearly show multivalued nature of the left-hand branches of the breakdown voltage curves. Physical processes defining the breakdown conditions are analyzed based on the spatial profiles of electron density, local mean energy, number of elastic and ionization collisions. Under conditions where two breakdown values exist one could identify two regimes and two different balances between electron losses and production. From the dependence of the breakdown voltage on the product of the pressure and the interelectrode distance and frequency over the gas number density, similarity laws for radio-frequency breakdown have been reexamined.
In this review, several examples of ionized gases are presented where swarm models may be employed to provide full description. Those situations include low space charge pre‐breakdown, Townsend region breakdown where space charge effects may be calculated from the swarm model and used as the first order perturbation to describe oscillations and transient signal and afterglows. In addition, implications are considered for microdischarges, discharges in and close to liquids, gas‐filled particle traps, thermalization of particles in living tissue, and many more. In all those situations, swarm models provide full description of the discharge, while for most other collision dominated non‐equilibrium plasmas swarm physics (transport‐related phenomena) provides a part of the foundation of modeling.
SUMMARYParticles and fields represent two major modeling paradigms in pure and applied science at all. Particles typically exist in a spatial domain and they may interact with other particles or with field quantities defined on that domain. A field, on the other hand, defines a set of values on a region of space. In this paper, a methodology and some of the results for three-dimensional (3D) simulations that includes both field and particle abstractions are presented. In our studies, charging damage to a semiconductor structure during plasma etching is simulated by using 3D level set profile evolution simulator. The surface potential profiles and electric field for the entire feature were generated by solving the Laplace equation using finite elements method. Calculations were performed in the case of simplified model of Ar 1 /CF 4 non-equilibrium plasma etching of SiO 2 .
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