Spatio-temporal evolution of electric field inside a microwave discharge plasma during initial phase of ignition and its effect on power coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates the spatio-temporal evolution of electric fields in a microwave discharge plasma during ignition, highlighting how electric field dynamics influence power coupling mechanisms such as ECR and off-ECR heating, using FEM simulations validated by experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a FEM-based model with a time-dependent Poisson solver to analyze electric field evolution and power coupling in microwave plasma, revealing mode shifts from ECR to off-ECR heating during ignition.

Findings

Electric field evolution influences power coupling modes.

Mode shifts from ECR to off-ECR heating occur during ignition.

Simulation results agree with experimental measurements.

Abstract

During the initial phase of microwave (MW) power launch inside a MW discharge ion source (MDIS), plasma and the electric fields are evolved with time together in the plasma volume. The spatio-temporal evolution pattern in the cavity of a MDIS is reported here, highlighting the role of these electric fields on power coupling processes. Evolution of electric field and so power coupling processes are calculated using Finite Element Method (FEM). Unlike PIC/MCC or hybrid fluid, here FEM model uses time dependent Poisson solver through drift-diffusion approach. In presence of plasma gradient in the volume ambipolar electric field is generated which interacts with the MW electric field to form resultant total electric field which continuously vary during this evolution period. It is observed that main power coupling mechanism is electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) method, however with the evolution of plasma, the mode shifts from ECR to off-ECR type heating with time. Off-ECR heating in the form of upper-hybrid resonance (UHR) method, electro-static (ES) ion acoustic wave heating method are important heating mechanisms during the over-dense plasma condition, when density is above critical density for launched MW frequency, 2.45 GHz. An indirect verification of simulated temporal evolution of hot electron temperature and plasma density with the experiment, is done under similar configuration and operating environment. The experimental results are found to be agreed reasonably well with the simulation in the low power range.