PIC-DSMC simulation of nonequilibrium capacitively coupled plasma in low pressure

Abstract

In recent years, the interaction of electrons with the electromagnetic field in plasma at low pressure has received significant attention because of its high application. In low-pressure plasma, electrons can move long distances without any collisions in physical dimensions of the problem. This causes nonlocal dynamics, which leads to strong time and space dependence on and anisotropy of the distribution function. In this paper, a hybrid Particle-in-Cell (PIC) method with Direct Monte Carlo Simulation (DSMC) was proposed to investigate electron interactions with the electrostatic field. A capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) reactor at low pressure (0.01–10Pa) was also investigated. The effect of electric field was studied on electrons and field distribution in the computational domain at different times. Also, the amplitude current was investigated in a complete radio frequency (RF) cycle. As a result, this work proposed tools to examine the discharge flow for accurate knowledge of CCP discharge for optimization of reactors and its related processes.