On electron heating in a low pressure capacitively coupled oxygen discharge

TL;DR

This study uses particle-in-cell simulations to analyze electron heating mechanisms, electron energy distributions, and plasma properties in low-pressure oxygen discharges at different pressures and voltages.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into electron heating modes and plasma behavior in oxygen discharges at 10 mTorr and 50 mTorr, highlighting the transition between drift-ambipolar and alpha modes.

Findings

Electron heating dominates in the plasma bulk at 10 mTorr.

Effective electron temperature increases with voltage at 10 mTorr.

At 50 mTorr, electron temperature remains low and stable across voltages.

Abstract

We use the one-dimensional object-oriented particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision code oopd1 to explore the charged particle densities, the electronegativity, the electron energy probability function (EEPF), and the electron heating mechanism in a single frequency capacitively coupled oxygen discharge when the applied voltage amplitude is varied. We explore discharges operated at 10 mTorr, where electron heating within the plasma bulk (the electronegative core) dominates, and at 50 mTorr where sheath heating dominates. At 10 mTorr the discharge is operated in combined drift-ambipolar (DA) and $\alpha$-mode and at 50 mTorr it is operated in pure $\alpha$-mode. At 10 mTorr the effective electron temperature is high and increases with increased driving voltage amplitude, while at 50 mTorr the effective electron temperature is much lower, in particular within the electronegative core, where it is roughly 0.2 - 0.3 eV, and varies only a little with the voltage amplitude.