Particle modeling of non-collisional heating in inductively coupled argon plasmas

Abstract The effect of non-collisional heating on inductively coupled argon plasma is examined using the particle modeling. The effect is clarified by comparing the plasma densities obtained using two types of plasma current; one is the warm current directly sampled from the velocities of electrons and the other is the cold current given by Ohm's law. The calculation is performed for gas pressure 1–20 mTorr. It is found that the influence of non-collisional heating increases as the pressure decreases. Use of Ohm's law is found to give an overestimate of the plasma density under the condition of a constant power deposition.