Numerical characterization of capacitively coupled plasmas modulated by ion beam injection

Abstract

Abstract This work proposes to use the Ar+ ion beam (IB) injection to modulate the properties of the single-frequency capacitively coupled plasma (CCP). The particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collisions method is used to simulate the plasma characteristics after the IB (2 keV, 0.5 A) is injected into the discharge area from the grounded electrode. The results show that the IB can effectively increase the plasma density, reduce the electron energy, increase the self-bias voltage, and thus increase ion flux and broaden the ion energy distribution function on the electrode. Furthermore, transition from α-mode to γ-mode occurs by increasing the secondary electron emission coefficient γ and discharge pressure. In general, the IB injection can be used as a complementary tool to control the plasma properties of CCP.