Axisymmetrical particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo simulation of narrow gap planar magnetron plasmas. I. Direct current-driven discharge

Abstract

An axisymmetrical particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo simulation is performed for modeling direct current-driven planar magnetron discharge. The axisymmetrical structure of plasma parameters such as plasma density, electric field, and electron and ion energy is examined in detail. The effects of applied voltage and magnetic field strength on the discharge are also clarified. The model apparatus has a narrow target-anode gap of 20 mm to make the computational time manageable. This resulted in the current densities which are very low compared to actual experimental results for a wider target-anode gap. The current–voltage characteristics show a negative slope in contrast with many experimental results. However, this is understandable from Gu and Lieberman’s similarity equation. The negative slope appears to be due to the narrow gap.