The Spatiotemporal Evolution of an RF Dusty Plasma: Comparison of Numerical Simulations and Experimental Measurements

ORAL

Abstract

Nonthermal RF plasmas in which dust particles nucleate and grow have been the subject of many experimental studies, but few comparisons exist with numerical simulations of the spatiotemporal evolution of the nanoparticle-plasma system. In the present work numerical simulations using a 1D self-consistent plasma-aerosol model are compared to experimental measurements of a dusty argon-silane plasma with corresponding operating conditions. Experimental measurements were made of the profiles of both plasma radiative emission and laser light scattering from particles. These were compared to the numerical model, which predicts that neutral gas drag causes the light scattering profile to peak near the grounded electrode, opposite the showerhead gas inlet, while the profile of radiative emission intensity is predicted to behave oppositely, due to the depletion of electrons by nanoparticles.

*Partially supported by NSF (CBET-0756315) and US Dept. of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Science (DE-SC0001939).

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Authors

  • Steven Girshick

    • University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
    • University of Minnesota

  • Adam Boies

    • University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

  • Pulkit Agarwal

    • University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

  • Johannes Berndt

    • GREMI, University of Orleans, France
    • GREMI Universite d'Orleans
    • GREMI, Orleans University

  • Eva Kovacevic

    • GREMI, University of Orleans, France

  • L. Boufendi

    • GREMI, UMR6606, CNRS/Universite d'Orleans, 14 rue d'Issoudun, BP6744, 45067 Orleans Cedex 2, France
    • GREMI, University of Orleans, France
    • GREMI, CNRS-Universite d'Orleans
    • GREMI, Orleans University
    • GREMI, Orleans, France