Scaling laws verification for capacitive rf-discharge Ar plasma using particle-in-cell simulations

The characteristics of a 13.56 MHz capacitively coupled rf glow-discharge Ar plasma are studied by particle-in-cell simulation. The model simulates a planar plasma device which can be approximated using a one-dimensional plasma model. The model has proven to be useful to investigate the effect of varying control parameters such as neutral gas pressure, driver frequency, applied rf voltage on the characteristics of the discharge. A set of equations describing the dynamics of the system are presented and used to give analytic scaling laws. The simulation code is used to calculate the pressure dependence of plasma density, sheath width, peak position of the ionization event, and absorbed rf power. Scaling laws relating the control parameters to other operating functions such as average plasma potential, central electron density, absorbed rf power are examined and these functions are compared with simple analytical scaling formula.