负偏压离子鞘及气体压强影响表面波放电过程的粒子模拟

由于表面电磁波沿着介质-等离子体分界面传播,而很难通过对传统的表面波等离子体(SWP)源施加负偏压实现金属材料溅射,因此限制了SWP源的使用范围.近期,一种基于负偏压离子鞘导波的SWP源克服了这个问题,且其加热机理是表面等离激元(SPP)的局域增强电场激励气体放电产生.但是该SWP源放电过程的影响因素并未研究清晰,导致其最佳放电条件没有获得.本文采用粒子(PIC)和蒙特卡罗碰撞(MCC)相结合的模拟方法,探讨了负偏压离子鞘及气体压强影响SWP电离发展过程的放电机理.模拟结果表明,负偏压和气体压强的大小影响了离子鞘的厚度、SPP的激励和波模的时空转化,从而表现出不同的放电形貌.进一步分析确定,在负偏压200 V左右和气体压强40 Pa附近,该SWP源的放电效果最佳.

Particle-in-cell simulation on surface-wave discharge process influenced by gas pressure and negative-biased voltage along ion sheath layer

Due to surface electromagnetic waves propagating along the dielectric-plasma interface, the application of surface-wave plasma (SWP) is limited in view of the fact that it is very difficult to realize metal sputtering by using negative-biased voltage in traditional SWP sources. Recently, this problem is overcome by a type of SWP source based on the guided wave in ion sheath layer driven by negative-biased voltage. And the plasma heating mechanism is originated from gas discharges excited by the local-enhanced electric field of surface plasmon polariton (SPP). However, the best discharge condition is not obtained because the influence factors affecting the discharge process studied is not clear. In this paper, the discharge mechanism of SWP ionization process influenced by gas pressure and negative-biased voltage along the ion sheath layer is investigated. The simulation method is by means of combining particle-in-cell (PIC) with Monte Carlo collision (MCC). Simulated results suggest that the values of negative-biased voltage and gas pressure can influence the thickness of ion sheath layer, the excitation of SPP, and the spatio-temporal conversion of wave mode, which further induces the different discharge performances. Moreover, the discussed analysis states that a better discharge performance can be obtained when approximately a negative-biased voltage of -200 V and a gas pressure of 40 Pa applied.
Keywords： surface-wave plasma surface plasmon polariton particle-in-cell simulation ion sheath layer