Hysteresis induced by gap length effects in capacitively coupled plasmas at low pressures

摘要: Gap length effects on the properties of capacitively coupled plasmas at low pressures are investigated with particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo simulations. A hysteresis, or two different steady states under same parameters, in argon gas is observed for first time. Simulation results show that hysteresis may be a consequence energy diffusion coefficients. At smaller gaps, electron probability functions will have much higher tails, and average loss to electrodes increase significantly. These imply electrons possibly heated by resonance heating mechanism therefore anisotropic.