Invited Paper PS2-ThM5
Computer Simulations of Processing Plasmas

Thursday, October 23, 2008, 9:20 am, Room 306

In this talk, an overview will be given of different modeling activities going on in our research group, for the aim of improving the applications of processing plasmas. There exist several approaches in literature to model gas discharge plasmas, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. In this presentation, several examples will be given of plasma modeling activities going on in our research group, to illustrate the capabilities and limitations of the various modeling approaches. More specifically, the following topics will be presented: Fluid modeling for describing the detailed plasma chemistry, leading to nanoparticle formation in dusty silane and acetylene discharges; Fluid modeling for describing dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs), used e.g., for surface treatment, but also for biomedical or environmental applications; PIC-MC modeling for describing magnetron discharges, for sputter-deposition applications of thin films; Hybrid MC-fluid modeling for describing inductively coupled plasmas (used for etching applications in the microelectronics industry) and glow discharges (used for analytical spectrochemistry applications). In each case, both the model and the type of discharge will be briefly outlined, and typical calculation results will be presented. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated why this particular modeling approach is most suitable for this application. Beside these computer models for the plasma itself, it is also of great interest to simulate the interaction between the plasma and the walls of the plasma reactor, because (i) this defines the boundary conditions of the plasma simulations, and (ii) it is essential for important applications such as thin film deposition and surface etching. For this purpose, we apply molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The capabilities and limitations of MD simulations will be illustrated for the case of plasma deposition of nanostructured carbon materials (nanocrystalline diamond thin films or carbon nanotubes).