Simulation of Formation and Elimination of Metastable Molecules in N₂ gas Discharge under High E/n

Abstract

Under high E/n condition, electrons gain high energy in discharge space. It is expected that many excited molecules are also generated in the space. If it is possible to utilize these molecules for surface processing, many functions may be introduced onto materials. However it is very difficult to estimate number density of neutral molecules generated in the space, because in a high E/n condition the electron energy distribution is not in equilibrium. The authors have used a Monte-Carlo method to estimate an electron energy distribution in discharge under high E/n. In this study, the number density of excited molecules and the flux onto materials were calculated under steady state condition using a Monte-Carlo method.