Analysis of the excited argon atoms in the GEC RF reference cell by means of one-dimensional PIC simulations

Lauro-Taroni, L.; Turner, M.M. and Braithwaite, N.St.J. (2004). Analysis of the excited argon atoms in the GEC RF reference cell by means of one-dimensional PIC simulations. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 37(16) pp. 2216–2222.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/37/16/002

Abstract

We examine the question of whether the excited states in argon contribute significantly to ionization in a capacitively coupled plasma through metastable pooling and step-ionization processes. We look at this issue by means of a one-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code, with collisions treated by a Monte Carlo collision package. In the range explored, 50–1000 mTorr, the main source of ionization, in the absence of secondary emission, is direct ionization from the ground state with a contribution from excited states that is negligible at lower pressures, but increases in importance at higher pressures. When secondary electrons are included, their interaction with ground state neutrals dominates the ionization. At higher pressures the metastable profiles can reveal useful information on the non-uniform mean electron energy across the discharge, even though these states do not necessarily play a significant role in ionization.

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