Modeling of the plasma chemistry and plasma-surface interactions in reactive plasmas

Abstract

In this paper, an overview is given of modeling activities going on in our research group, for describing the plasma chemistry and plasma-surface interactions in reactive plasmas. The plasma chemistry is calculated by a fluid approach or by hybrid Monte Carlo (MC)-fluid modeling. An example of both is illustrated in the first part of the paper. The example of fluid modeling is given for a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in CH4/O2, to describe the partial oxidation of CH4 into value-added chemicals. The example of hybrid MC-fluid modeling concerns an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etch reactor in Ar/Cl2/O2, including also the description of the etch process. The second part of the paper deals with the treatment of plasma-surface interactions on the atomic level, with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations or a combination of MD and MC simulations. © 2010 IUPAC.