AVS 50th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS-WeP

Paper PS-WeP12
Effect of Gas Heating in a High Density Pulsed Plasma Discharge

Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 11:00 am, Room Hall A-C

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: S.K. Nam, University of Houston
Authors: D.J. Economou, University of Houston
S.K. Nam, University of Houston
Correspondent: Click to Email
Owing to their importance, power-modulated plasmas have been studied both experimentally and computationally. However, the effect of gas heating in pulsed discharges has not been studied in detail. In contrast, there are numerous studies of gas heating in continuous wave discharges. A two-dimensional self-consistent model and simulation tool were developed to study the spatio-temporal dynamics of a pulsed power (square-wave modulated) inductively coupled argon discharge, with emphasis on gas heating effects. The coupled equations for plasma power deposition, electron temperature, charged and neutral species densities, and gas temperature were solved to obtain the space-time evolution of the discharge in a Gaseous Electronics Conference (GEC) ICP reference cell. The effect of control parameters such as power, duty ratio, pressure, and pulse frequency on the evolution of discharge properties (electron density, electron temperature, gas temperature) was investigated. Simulation results on discharge properties were in good agreement with available experimental data. @FootnoteText@ Work supported by the National Science Foundation.