Narrow gap electronegative capacitive discharges

Narrow gap electronegative (EN) capacitive discharges are widely used in industry and have unique features not found in conventional discharges. In this paper, plasma parameters are determined over a range of decreasing gap length L from values for which an electropositive (EP) edge exists (2-region case) to smaller L-values for which the EN region connects directly to the sheath (1-region case). Parametric studies are performed at applied voltage V rf ¼ 500 V for pressures of 10, 25, 50, and 100 mTorr, and additionally at 50 mTorr for 1000 and 2000 V. Numerical results are given for a parallel plate oxygen discharge using a planar 1D3v (1 spatial dimension, 3 velocity components) particle-in-cell (PIC) code. New interesting phenomena are found for the case in which an EP edge does not exist. This 1-region case has not previously been investigated in detail, either numerically or analytically. In particular, attachment in the sheaths is important, and the central electron density n e0 is depressed below the density n esh at the sheath edge. The sheath oscillations also extend into the EN core, creating an edge region lying within the sheath and not characterized by the standard diffusion in an EN plasma. An analytical model is developed using minimal inputs from the PIC results, and compared to the PIC results for a base case at V rf ¼ 500 V and 50 mTorr, showing good agreement. Selected comparisons are made at the other voltages and pressures. A self-consistent model is also developed and compared to the PIC results, giving reasonable agreement. V C 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.