A self-consistent particle-in-cell simulation study is performed to investigate the effect of
driving frequency on the electric field non-linearity, electron heating mechanism, and
electron energy distribution function (EEDF) in a low pressure symmetric capacitively
coupled plasma (CCP) discharge at a constant electron plasma frequency maintained by
adjusting the discharge voltage. The driving frequency is varied from 27.12 MHz to 100 MHz
for a fixed discharge gap of 3.2 cm and at a gas pressure of 1 Pa. The simulation results
provide insight into higher harmonic generations in a CCP system for a constant electron
response time. The spatio-temporal evolution and spatial time-averaged electron heating are
presented for different driving frequencies. The simulation results predict that the electric
field non-linearity increases with a rise in driving frequency along with a concurrent increase
in higher harmonic contents. In addition to the electron heating and cooling near to the sheath
edge, a positive <J.E> is observed in to the bulk plasma at higher driving frequencies. The
EEDF illustrates enhancement in the population of mid-energy range electrons as driving
frequency increases thereby changing the shape of EEDF from bi-Maxwellian to nearly
Maxwellian. For the constant ion flux on the electrode surface, a decrease in the ion energy
by more than half is observed with an increase in driving frequency.
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Funders:
Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS Sanctioned No. 39/14/05/2018-BRNS), Science and Engineering Research Board EMEQ program (SERB Sanctioned No. EEQ/2017/000164), Infosys Foundation Young Investigator grant.
ID Code:
27105
Deposited On:
09 May 2022 14:06 by
Miles Turner
. Last Modified 09 May 2022 15:39