Plasma parameters and volume kinetics in Cl-2/O-2 mixtures

Abstract

We investigated plasma characteristics, plasma mass content and kinetic dependencies of both neutral and charged particle formation and decay in Cl-2/O-2 gas mixture. For these purposes we used a combination of experimental methods (optical emission spectroscopy, Langmuir probe) and a plasma modeling on the base of self-consistent solution of Boltzmann kinetic equation together with balance kinetic equations for neutral and charged particles in a quasi-stationary approximation. It was found that the change of O-2/(Cl-2+O-2) mixing ratio from 0 to 0.2 leads to an increase of electron average energy and electron energy distribution function (EEDF) deformation. The main mechanisms of Cl and O atom formation are the direct electron impact dissociation of corresponding molecules while the contribution of all possible "secondary" processes is not significant in the case of a relatively low O-2 addition. (C) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.