<i>Pseudo</i>-3D PIC modeling of drift-induced spatial inhomogeneities in planar magnetron plasmas

Revel, A.; Minea, Tiberiu; Tsikata, Sédina

doi:10.1063/1.4964480

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Besides U IR and β, recent IRM-modeling with other target materials [11] has revealed that sometimes a third fitting parameter needs to be added to the list: the probability r of back-attraction of secondary-emitted electrons from the target. Also this parameter is extremely difficult to predict theoretically [22][23][24]. In the two discharges studied here the Al target needs only two fitting parameters, while the Ti target needs three.…”

Section: The Ionization Region Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle-balance models for pulsed sputtering magnetrons

Huo

Lundin

Guðmundsson

et al. 2017

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

136

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The time-dependent plasma discharge ionization region model (IRM) has been under continuous development during the past seven years and used in several studies of the ionization region of high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharges. In the present work, a complete description of the most recent version of the IRM is given, which includes improvements, such as allowing for returning of the working gas atoms from the target, a separate treatment of hot secondary electrons, addition of doubly charged metal ions, etc. To show the general applicability of the IRM, two different HiPIMS discharges are investigated. The first set concerns 400 µs long discharge pulses applied to an Al target in an Ar atmosphere at 1.8 Pa. The second set focuses on 100 µs long discharge pulses applied to a Ti target in an Ar atmosphere at 0.54 Pa, and explorers the effects when varying the magnetic field strength. The model results show that Al 2+-ions contribute negligibly to the production of secondary electrons, while Ti 2+-ions effectively contribute to the production of secondary electrons. Similarly, the model results show that for an argon discharge with Al target the contribution of Al +-ions to the discharge current is over 90 % at 800 V, while Al +-ions and Ar +-ions contribute roughly equally to the discharge current at 400 V. For high currents the discharge with Al target develops almost pure self-sputter recycling, while the discharge with Ti target exhibits close to a 50/50 combination of self-sputter recycling and working gas-recycling. For a Ti target, a self-sputter yield significantly below unity makes working gas-recycling necessary at high currents. In the discharge with Ti target the B-field was reduced in steps from the nominal value, which resulted in a corresponding stepwise increase in the discharge resistivity.

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Section: The Ionization Region Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle-balance models for pulsed sputtering magnetrons

Huo

Lundin

Guðmundsson

et al. 2017

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

136

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“…Furthermore, the emission of an electron upon impact of an incident electron at the wall is not only characterized by a scalar probability, but also by energy and angular distributions for backscattered and emitted electrons. Yet, often in the literature, electron emission is much simplified and assumed to follow a constant probability for reemission (independent of the incident electron's energy and angle), with electrons re-emitted at a given (low) temperature [see 94,95].…”

Section: Electron-wall Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pitfalls in Modeling Walls and Neutrals Physics in Gas Discharges Using Parallel Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo Collision Algorithms

2018

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Owing to their ability to model the physics of low-pressure plasmas away from thermodynamical equilibrium, particle-in-cell (PIC) techniques have become one of the tools of choice to simulate the operation of many plasma devices. This trend is reinforced by the growing access to parallel computing resources which enables tackling problems that were previously intractable with PIC techniques. However, accurate modeling of these plasmas often depends critically on the detailed description of a variety of physical phenomena ranging from microscopic to macroscopic scale and from electrons' to neutral particles' timescale. Among those are coupling phenomena between charged particles and neutrals. We illustrate here how the implementation of simplified models for scattering kinematics, neutrals dynamics and particle-wall interaction can affect simulation results. Until the full breadth of these effects can be captured in models, these results underline the importance of using extensive parametric scans to assess the importance of these effects.

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“…Using particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision (PIC/MCC) simulations the EEDF can be calculated self-consistently along with spatial and temporal variation of the various plasma parameters. However, due to the timescales involved and the high electron densities, it remains challenging to apply PIC/MCC simulations to the HiPIMS discharge [19], but a few attempts have been successful, including both 2D [34] and pseudo-3D [35] PIC/MCC simulation. Using a 2D PIC/MCC simulation Revel et al [34] observe a EEDF that is composed of at least two Maxwellian-like distributions during the pulse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the electron energy distribution function in the high power impulse magnetron sputtering discharge

Rudolph,

Revel,

Lundin

et al. 2021

Preprint

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We apply the Ionization Region Model (IRM) and the Orsay Boltzmann equation for ELectrons coupled with Ionization and eXcited states kinetics (OBELIX) model to study the electron kinetics of a high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharge. In the IRM the bulk (cold) electrons are assumed to exhibit a Maxwellian energy distribution and the secondary (hot) electrons, emitted from the target surface upon ion bombardment, are treated as a high energy tail, while in the OBELIX the electron energy distribution is calculated self-consistently using an isotropic Boltzmann equation. The two models are merged in the sense that the output from the IRM is used as an input for OBELIX. The temporal evolutions of the particle densities are found to agree very well between the two models. Furthermore, a very good agreement is demonstrated between the bi-Maxwellian electron energy distribution assumed by the IRM and the electron energy distribution calculated by the OBELIX model. It can therefore be concluded that assuming a bi-Maxwellian electron energy distribution, constituting a cold bulk electron group and a hot secondary electron group, is a good approximation for modeling the HiPIMS discharge.

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Pseudo-3D PIC modeling of drift-induced spatial inhomogeneities in planar magnetron plasmas

Cited by 25 publications

References 74 publications

Particle-balance models for pulsed sputtering magnetrons

Particle-balance models for pulsed sputtering magnetrons

Pitfalls in Modeling Walls and Neutrals Physics in Gas Discharges Using Parallel Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo Collision Algorithms

On the electron energy distribution function in the high power impulse magnetron sputtering discharge

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