Modeling the electromagnetic excitation of a compact ECR ion/free radical sourcea)

The electromagnetic excitation of a discharge inside a microwave plasma source has been numerically modeled in the time domain. The source is a cylindrical, single-mode microwave-excited cavity. The time-varying electromagnetic fields inside the resonant cavity, both inside and outside the discharge region, are obtained by applying a finite-difference time-domain method to solve Maxwell’s equations. The electromagnetic properties of the discharge load are described using a conductivity model. The spatial electric field patterns, natural frequencies, stored energy, and quality factor of a plasma-loaded, microwave-resonant cavity are simulated. Additionally, the simulated results for a simplified plasma source structure are compared to a known analytical solution to verify the simulation technique.