Particle-in-cell modeling of electron beam generated plasma

Rauf, Shahid; Sydorenko, Dmytro; Jubin, Sierra; Villafana, Willca; Ethier, S.; Khrabrov, Alexander V.; Kaganovich, Igor

doi:10.1088/1361-6595/acd3a9

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…EDIPIC is open source and available on GitHub with the necessary documentation [20]. EDIPIC has been described recently by Rauf et al [21]. It uses a standard explicit leap-frog algorithm in Cartesian geometry, with the Boris scheme for particle advance [22].…”

Section: Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of synchronous RF pulsing in dual frequency capacitively coupled plasma

Verma,

Rauf,

Bera

et al. 2024

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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Low-pressure multi-frequency capacitively coupled plasmas (CCPs) are used for numerous etch and deposition applications in the semiconductor industry. Pulsing of the radio-frequency (RF) sources enables control of neutral and charged species in the plasma on a millisecond timescale. The synchronous (i.e. simultaneous, in-phase) pulsing of both power sources in a dual frequency CCP is examined in this article. Due to the low gas pressure, modeling has been done using the electrostatic particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision method. The objective of this work is to investigate the sensitivity of the plasma properties to small changes in timing during synchronous pulsing of the two RF sources. It is demonstrated that small deviations in the on and off times of the two RF sources can lead to major changes in the plasma characteristics. This high sensitivity is of concern for process repeatability but can be utilized to enable better control of the dynamics of plasma-surface interaction. In the simulations, the pulsing parameters (on and off times and ramp rates) are varied and the temporal evolution of plasma characteristics such as electron density (ne ), species current at the electrode, and electron temperature are examined. It is demonstrated that if the low-frequency (LF) source is turned off a few μs before (or after) the high-frequency source, ne during the off-state is significantly higher (or lower) due to the frequency coupling effect. Similarly, turning on the LF source with a small delay results in a sharp increase in the plasma density when the RF sources are turned on.

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Section: Computational Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of synchronous RF pulsing in dual frequency capacitively coupled plasma

Verma,

Rauf,

Bera

et al. 2024

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Cross sections for these reactions are sourced from [6,7,67,68]. All the physical processes described above have been implemented in a well-benchmarked 2D Electrostatic Direct Implicit Particle-In-Cell (EDIPIC) code [66,[68][69][70][71], which has been used widely in low-temperature plasma studies such as radio-frequency plasma discharge [72,73], gas breakdown [67,74] and electron beam-generated plasma [68,70,75,76]. And such model is well validated against experimental measurements [77,78] and theoretical calculation [1] in terms of the threshold electric fields for the onset of multipactor phenomenon, and saturated surface charge densities from other PIC simulation [79].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Oblique streaming waves observed in multipactor-induced plasma discharge above a dielectric surface

Jin,

Chen,

Sun

et al. 2024

Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.

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In a recent discovery (Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 045001, 2022), streaming waves were found in multipactor-induced plasma discharges. However, due to the limitations of a 1D simulation setup, these waves displayed only transverse dynamics. In this letter, an extended 2D particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo model is used to simulate multipactor-induced plasma discharge above a dielectric surface. The results reveal that the streaming waves are not solely transverse but oblique, featuring both transverse and longitudinal components of the wave vector. Furthermore, it is identified that the sheath-accelerated field-emission electrons, rather than the previously reported secondary emission electrons, predominantly cause the excitation of streaming waves. The simulated wave spectrum achieves an excellent agreement with the theoretical dispersion relation. The identification of oblique streaming waves provides new insights into multipactor physics and is anticipated to inspire novel mitigation strategies for multipactor-induced breakdown processes.

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Characterization of transversely confined electron beam-generated plasma using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations

Cao,

Chen,

Sun

et al. 2023

Physics of Plasmas

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Electron beam-generated plasmas (EBPs) have been used to modify the surface properties. In certain applications, EBPs are transversely confined and their properties are of value to the treatment. In this paper, the characteristics of an electron beam-generated argon plasma, confined within a narrow gap, are investigated using a two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The employed particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision model accounts for the electron and ion kinetics, as well as collisions between electrons and the background gas, including the elastic scattering, excitation, and impact ionization. Our simulations reveal a strong correlation between the plasma density and the beam density within the plasma bulk. The excitation of obliquely growing waves is observed, which is found to have a significant impact on the transport of beam electrons, thereby leading to the non-uniformities of plasma density and electron temperature. Specifically, the obliquely growing waves increase the local plasma density while reducing the electron temperature. These contrasting effects compensate for each other, and therefore, to some extent, smooth out the distributions of ion flux and energy flux. We further examine the variations of plasma parameters with respect to the beam current density, beam energy, and gas pressure. Increasing the beam current density or decreasing the beam energy results in higher plasma density and electron temperature, while increasing pressure leads to a higher plasma density but electron temperature scarcely changes. Based on the simulation results, we propose an approach to achieve independent control of the ion flux and energy flux by adjusting beam current density, beam energy, and pressure.

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Particle-in-cell modeling of electron beam generated plasma

Cited by 8 publications

References 38 publications

Study of synchronous RF pulsing in dual frequency capacitively coupled plasma

Study of synchronous RF pulsing in dual frequency capacitively coupled plasma

Oblique streaming waves observed in multipactor-induced plasma discharge above a dielectric surface

Characterization of transversely confined electron beam-generated plasma using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations

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