A current driven capacitively coupled chlorine discharge

Abstract

The effect of driving current, driving frequency and secondary electrons on capacitively coupled chlorine discharge is systematically investigated using a hybrid approach consisting of a particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo simulation and a volume-averaged global model. The driving current is varied from 20 to 80 A m −2 , the driving frequency is varied from 13.56 to 60 MHz and the secondary electron emission coefficient is varied from 0.0 to 0.4. Key plasma parameters including electron energy probability function, electron heating rate, ion energy and angular distributions are explored and their variations with control parameters are analyzed and compared with other discharges. Furthermore, we extend our study to dual-frequency (DF) capacitively coupled chlorine discharge by adding a low-frequency current source and explore the effect of the low-frequency source on the discharge. The low-frequency current density is increased from 0 to 4 A m −2 . The flux of Cl + 2 ions to the surface increases only slightly while the average energy of Cl + 2 ions to the surface increases almost linearly with increasing low-frequency current, which shows possible independent control of the flux and energy of Cl + 2 ions by varying the low-frequency current in a DF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge. However, the increase in the flux of Cl + ions with increasing low-frequency current, which is mainly due to the increased dissociation fraction of the background gas caused by extra power supplied by the low-frequency source, is undesirable.

Tailored voltage waveforms applied to a capacitively coupled chlorine discharge

“…The difference between the measured values is explained by the passivation of the plasma chamber toward Cl-atom recombination [50]. In this current study, we assume that as a Cl atom hits the electrode, it is quenched and returns as a thermal Cl atom with 50% probability or it recombines to form a thermal Cl 2 molecule with 50% probability, which is consistent with our previous studies [31][32][33]. For this current study both the electron reflection coefficient and the secondary electron emission yield at the electrodes are set to zero.…”

“…Earlier we developed a reaction set for particle-incell/Monte Carlo (PIC/MCC) simulation of the chlorine discharge [31]. We have explored the influence of discharge pressure on a voltage driven SF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge [31] and the role of the driving current amplitude, driving frequency and secondary electron emission on a current driven SF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge [32]. Furthermore, we explored a 'classical' DF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge [32,33] and a current driven DF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge where the parameters of the HF and the LF sources were varied independently [34].…”

“…We have explored the influence of discharge pressure on a voltage driven SF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge [31] and the role of the driving current amplitude, driving frequency and secondary electron emission on a current driven SF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge [32]. Furthermore, we explored a 'classical' DF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge [32,33] and a current driven DF capacitively coupled chlorine discharge where the parameters of the HF and the LF sources were varied independently [34]. As the driving HF is increased, the average sheath potential and the HF component of the voltage decrease dramatically as the plasma impedance for the HF component decreases.…”

Ion Energy and Angular Distributions in a Dual-Frequency Capacitively Coupled Chlorine Discharge

“…Here, the absorbed power is found to be 1.88 W and the fraction of Cl atoms is 14.1%. A more thorough analysis on the DF case are given elsewhere [5]. Fig.…”

Effect of driving frequency on dust particle dynamics in radiofrequency capacitive argon discharge

“…Many operating parameters can influence the discharge characteristics such as the gas pressure, the applied voltage, the gap between electrodes and the driving frequency, which is an important operating parameter in capacitive glow discharges. Thus, many researchers have studied the effect of the driving frequency on the discharge characteristics (Surendra & Graves 1991;Vahedi et al 1993;Colgan, Meyyappan & Murnick 1994;Heintz & Hieftje 1995;Kitajima et al 1998;Rakhimova et al 2006;Zhu et al 2007;Liu et al 2012;Huang & Gudmundsson 2014;Wilczek et al 2015;Sharma et al 2016;Samir et al 2017;Liu, Booth & Chabert 2018;Sharma et al 2018). These studies have shown a significant change in the discharge properties with a change in the driving frequency.…”