Plasmas and plasma-induced processes on surfaces

The modelling of plasmas at IOM is to support experimental investigations by providing insights into the elementary processes in a plasma. The modelling activities are principally aimed at understanding the production of ions, radicals and energetic photons that interact with surfaces in deposition, etching or conversion processes. For this activity, mostly kinetic models are applied that can be used in combination with global or fluid models. Additionally, ablation profiles of plasma sources can be predicted by programs developed at IOM.

Expertise

  • Kinetic modelling of plasma discharges
  • Modeling of ablation functions and dose distributions of plasma beams

Highlights

  • Optimizing the deposition rate and ionized flux fraction by tuning the pulse length in high power impulse magnetron sputtering

    M. Rudolph, N. Brenning, M.A. Raadu, H. Hajihoseini, J.T. Gudmundsson, A. Anders, D. Lundin
    Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., Vol. 29, 05LT01 (2020)
    https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6595/ab8175

    High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is an ionized physical vapor deposition technique. It typically has a lower deposition rate compared to direct current magnetron sputtering (dcMS). It is shown that by shortening the pulse length while keeping the peak discharge current constant, the deposition rate increases without compromising the ionized flux fraction.  

  • On the electron energy distribution function in the high power impulse magnetron sputtering discharge

    M. Rudolph, A. Revel, D. Lundin, H. Hajihoseini, N. Brenning, M. A. Raadu, A. Anders, T. M. Minea, J. T. Gudmundsson
    Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., Vol. 30, 045011 (2021)
    https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6595/abefa8

    The electron energy distribution function (EEDF) of a discharge is an important characteristic for understanding the physical and chemical processes in a plasma discharge. Here, the EEDF of a high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS) discharge is modelled. It is shown that this EEDF can be well approximated by a bi-maxwellian distribution.

  • Influence of the magnetic field on the discharge physics of a high power impulse magnetron sputtering discharge

    M. Rudolph, N. Brenning, H. Hajihoseini, M. A. Raadu, T. M. Minea, A. Anders, J. T. Gudmundsson, D. Lundin
    J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 55 (2021) 015202
    https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ac2968

    The magnetic field of a magnetron has a great influence on the discharge characteristics of a high-power pulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) discharge. We here define a similarity parameter to group discharges with comparable discharge parameters, despite very different magnetic field configurations. It is shown that the energy efficiency of HiPIMS discharges increases with a lower value of that similarity parameter, as a higher fraction of input power is used for electron heating. At the same time Ohmic heating of electrons grows in importance over sheath heating.