Modeling of very high frequency large-electrode capacitively coupled plasmas with a fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell code

TL;DR

This paper presents a fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulation approach for modeling very high frequency large-electrode capacitively coupled plasmas, capturing complex physics like surface mode excitations and nonlocal effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel energy- and charge-conserving implicit particle-in-cell code, ECCOPIC2M, capable of accurately simulating high-frequency large-electrode plasmas with complex physics.

Findings

Good agreement with various collisionality and power cases

Advantages over other models in capturing surface mode and nonlocal physics

Predictive modeling capability for low-pressure plasma discharges

Abstract

Phenomena taking place in capacitively coupled plasmas with large electrodes and driven at very high frequencies are studied numerically utilizing a novel energy- and charge-conserving implicit fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell / Monte Carlo code ECCOPIC2M. The code shows a good agreement with different cases having various collisionality and absorbed power. Although some aspects of the underlying physics were demonstrated in the previous literature with other models, the particle-in-cell method is advantageous for the predictive modeling due to a complex interplay between the surface mode excitations and the nonlocal physics of the corresponding type of plasma discharges operated at low pressures, which is hard to reproduce in other models realistically.