Courses Detail Information

VE517 – Physical Processes in Plasmas

Instructors:

N/A

Credits: 3 credits

Pre-requisites: Graduate Standing

Description:

Introduction to partially ionized, chemically reactive plasmas, including collisional processes, diffusion, sources, sheaths, boundaries, and diagnostics. DC, RF, and microwave discharges. Applications to plasma-assisted materials processing and to plasma wall interactions.

Course Topics:

1. Introduction
Materials processing
Plasma and sheaths, discharges symbols and units
2. Basic plasma equations and equilibrium
Introduction, field equations, current and voltage
Conservation equations
Equilibrium properties
3. Atomic collisions
Basic concepts, collision dynamics
Elastic scattering
Inelastic collisions, average over distributions, surface effects
4. Plasma dynamics
Basic motions
Nonmagnetized plasma dynamics
5. Diffusion and transport
Basic relations
Diffusion solutions
Low pressure solutions
6. DC sheaths
Basic concept and equations, Bohm sheath criterion
HiGh voltage sheath
Electronegative sheaths, collisional sheath
Electrostatic probe diagnostics
7. Chemical reactions and equilibrium
Introduction, energy and enthalphy, entropy and Gibbs fre
e energy
Chemical equilibrium
Heterogeneous equilibrium
8. Molecular collisions
Introduction, molecular structure, electron collisions with molecules
Heavy particle collisions, reaction rates and detailed balancing
Optical emission and actinometry
9. Chemical kinetics and surface processes
Elementary reactions
Gas phase kinetics
Surface processes
Surface kinetics
10. Particle and energy balance in discharges
Introduction, electropositive plasma equilibrium
Electronegative discharge equilibrium
11. Capacitive discharges
Homogenous model
Inhomogenous model
Asymmetric discharges and matching networks
12. Inductive discharges
High density low pressure discharges
Operating regimes, planar coil configuration
13. Wave heated discharges
Electron cyclotron resonance discharges
14. DC Discharges
Qualitative characteristics of glow discharges
Analysis of the positive column
Planar magnetron discharges
15. Etching
Etch requirements and processes
Etching kinetics
Halogen atom etching of silicon
16. Deposition and Implantation
Introduction, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition
Sputter deposition
Plasma immersion ion implantation