Session 7P - Plasma Applications and Plasma Technology.
POSTER session, Thursday morning, November 14
Exhibit Hall - Concourse Level, Adam's Mark
The modelling of gas discharges produced and sustained by travelling surface waves is very actual due to numerous applications of such discharges in various fields of technology and research[1]. Surface wave sustained plasmas have been studied intensively by Moisan et.al.[1] in cylindrical devices and this work hopes to extend such studies to planar configurations more suitable for large area plasma processing. Here we consider a problem of propagation of the slow ionizing ion-sound surface wave (ISSW) in a warm, unmagnetized, bounded plasma. The argon unhomogeneous plasma is assumed to be confined between two parallel metal walls. The case when dielectric gap between a plasma and metal exists is considered. The self-consistent formulation of the problem based on Maxwell and quasihudrodynamical equations obtained from Boltzman equation is proposed. The numerical and analytical study of the problem was carried out in ambipolar diffusion regime. The phase characteristics of the ISSW, radial and axial distributions of the field, of electron and ion densities and and amplitude of the ISSW are obtained. It is shown that the studied discharge can be used for polishing of surfaces. 1.M.Moisan et al.J.Vac.Sci.Technol.B, Vol.9, No.1, pp.8-25(1991).