Mode transition for power dissipation induced by driving frequency in capacitively coupled plasma

Abstract

We measured electrical characteristics of capacitively coupled plasma at low pressure (2.67 Pa) with different driving frequencies. From these measurements, we observed a significant change in discharge power characteristics during the frequency increase. While increasing the frequency, a square dependence of power characteristics (Psimilar toI(2)) changes to a linear dependence (Psimilar toI). This observed result reflects that a power dissipation mode transition from an ion-dominated dissipation mode to an electron-dominated dissipation mode takes place during the driving frequency increase. Both the results calculated from a simple sheath model and a particle-in-cell simulation are in a good agreement with the experimental data. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.