Pulsing a Low Pressure Radiofrequency Discharge

Abstract

A 1 D Particle-in-Cell(PIC-MCC)simulation has been used to study the effect of temporal modulation(pulsing)of an rf(13.56MHz)source voltage on the evolution of an argon plasma. Plasma breakdown occurs during the first on-time of the pulse and analytic expressions for the density evolution during and after breakdown are presented for the single pulse case. The effect of multiple pulsing on the plasma development is then examined and compared with the steady-state evolution. Experimental measurements of pulsing in a parallel plate rf system are also presented, which have a high qualitative agreement with the simulation results.