Abstract A plasma source with an inductive coupling can effectively modify and etch metals and semiconductors used in photosensitization and optoelectronics materials. This paper focuses on modelling two-dimensional argon-chlorine plasma in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor using COMSOL Multiphysics. The molecular dynamics, electromagnetic field, induction currents, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics distributions are investigated for efficient plasma processing. Simulated results indicate that higher pressure confines the discharge, reducing the density of electrons at the substrate location, which would tend to reduce the ion and radical fluxes available for etching. With rising source power, ion flux increased, but the mean ion energy doesn’t change much. Plasma electronegativity decreases with increasing RF power, and the discharge switches between capacitive and inductive mode. On the other hand, plasma electronegativity increases with increasing chlorine concentrations, and it becomes more significant up to 50 % of chlorine concentrations. However, molecule species lose energy, resulting in a rapidly declining electron density with increasing chlorine content. The simulation study enables the accurate extraction of operating conditions of ICP reactors using an Ar/Cl 2 mixture that significantly enhances uniform etching without damaging the material.
Elaissi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.