Publications

The magnitude and the structure of the ion-wakefield potential below a negatively charged dust particle levitated in the plasma-sheath region have been determined. Attractive and repulsive components of the interaction force were extracted from a trajectory analysis of low-energy dust collisions in a well-defined electrostatic potential, which constrained the dynamics of the collisions to be one dimensional. The peak attraction was on the order of 100 fN. The structure of the ion-wakefield-induced attractive potential was significantly different from a screened-Coulomb repulsive potential.

Plasma dust particle interactions, charges, and screening lengths are derived from measurements of time-dependent particle positions in a simplified geometry. The magnitude and structure of the ion wakefield potential below a negatively charged dust particle levitated in the plasma sheath region were measured as functions of the pressure and interparticle spacing. Attractive and repulsive components of the interaction force were extracted from a trajectory analysis of low-energy dust collisions between different mass particles in a well-defined electrostatic potential that constrained the dynamics of the collisions to be one-dimensional. Typical peak attractions varied between 60 and 230 fN while the peak particle-particle repulsion was on the order of 60 fN. Random thermal motion of the particles contributed to observable rates for transitions between different equilibrium configurations of vertically separated particles. The influence of nearest- and non-nearest-neighbor interactions on calculated particle parameters is examined using several methods. © 2003 The American Physical Society.

This report documents the strategies for verification and validation of the codes LSP and ICARUS used for simulating the operation of the neutron tubes used in all modern nuclear weapons. The codes will be used to assist in the design of next generation neutron generators and help resolve manufacturing issues for current and future production of neutron devices. Customers for the software are identified, tube phenomena are identified and ranked, software quality strategies are given, and the validation plan is set forth.

Abstract not provided.

A model is developed for the forces acting on a micrometer-size particle (dust) suspended within a plasma sheath. The significant forces acting on a single particle are gravity, neutral gas drag, electric field, and the ion wind due to ion flow to the electrode. It is shown that an instability in the small-amplitude dust oscillation might exist if the conditions are appropriate. In such a case the forcing term due to the ion wind exceeds the damping of the gas drag. The basic physical cause for the instability is that the ion wind force can be a decreasing function of the relative ion-particle velocity. However it seems very unlikely the appropriate conditions for instability are present in typical dusty plasmas.

Hydrogen atom-hydrogen atom scattering is a prototype for many of the fundamental principles of atomic collisions. In this work we present the formalism and the predictions of a time-dependent self-consistent-field description of the H + H system for scattering in the intermediate energy regime of 1-100 keV. Because of the unrestricted nature of the numerical orbital description, this method includes the effects of an unlimited basis set within each orbital. Electron exchange and a limited amount of electron correlation are included as well. We solve numerically coupled three-dimensional Schrodinger equations for the two-electron orbitals in singlet and triplet symmetries. Excitation and ionization cross sections are computed and compared with other theory and experiment. The results capture many features of the problem but illustrate a need for more quantitative experimental information concerning the H + H system in this energy range.

In this paper, the authors report the absolute intensities of ultraviolet light between 4.9 eV and 24 eV ( 250 nm to 50 mn ) striking a silicon wafer in a number of oxide-etch processing discharges. The emphasis is on photons with energies greater than 8.8 eV, which have enough energy to damage SiO{sub 2}. These discharges were in an inductively-driven Gaseous Electronics Conference reference cell which had been modified to more closely resemble commercial etching tools. Comparisons of measurements made through a side port in the cell and through a hole in the wafer indicate that the VUV light in these discharges is strongly trapped. For the pure halocarbon gases examined in these experiments (C{sub 2}F{sub 6}, CHF{sub 3}, C{sub 4}F{sub 8}), the fluxes of VUV photons to the wafer varied from 1 x 10{sup 15} to 3 x 10{sup 15} photons/cm{sup 2} sec or equivalently from 1.5 to 5 mW/cm{sup 2}. These measurements imply that 0.1% to 0.3% of the rf source power to these discharges ends up hitting the wafer as VUV photons for the typical 20 mT, 200 W rf discharges. For typical ashing discharges containing pure oxygen, the VUV intensities are slightly higher--about 8 mW/cm{sup 2} . As argon or hydrogen diluents are added to the fluorocarbon gases, the VUV intensities increase dramatically, with a 10/10/10 mixture of Ar/C{sub 2}F{sub 6}/H{sub 2} yielding VUV fluxes on the wafer 26 mW/cm{sup 2} and pure argon discharges yielding 52 mW/cm{sup 2} . Adding an rf bias to the wafer had only a small effect on the VUV observed through a side-port of the GEC cell.

Hydrogen atom-hydrogen atom scattering is a prototype for many of the fundamental principles of atomic collisions. In this paper we present an approximation to the H + H system for scattering in the intermediate energy regime of 1-100 keV. The approximation ignores electron exchange and two-electron excitation by assuming that one of the atoms is frozen in the 1s state. We allow for the evolution of the active electron by numerically solving the 3D Schrodinger equation. This approximation is by nature most appropriate for higher-energy collisions. The results capture many features of the problem and are in harmony with recent theoretical studies. Excitation and ionization cross sections are computed and compared with other theory and experiment. New insight into the mechanism of excitation and ionization is inferred from the solutions.

Macroscopic particles or solid surfaces in contact with a typical low-temperature plasma immediately charge negatively and surround themselves with an electron-depleted region of positive charge. This Debye shielding effect is involved in the Debye-Huckel theory in liquids and plasma sheath formation in the gas phase. In this report, the interaction between such screened particles is found by using the same basic approximation that is used in constructing the Debye shielding potential itself. The results demonstrate that a significant attraction exists between the particles, and, if conditions are right, this attractive force can contribute to the generation of particulate plasma crystals.

An implicit Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm is implemented to solve the time-dependent Schroedinger equation with application to charge-exchange collisions. Cross sections are calculated for He{sup 2} on H and compared with experiment and other theoretical results. A disagreement between previously published theoretical results is resolved.

This work develops some practical approximations needed to simulate a high plasma density volume bounded by walls made of dielectrics or metals which may be either biased or floating in potential. Solving Poisson`s equation in both the high-density bulk and the sheath region poses a difficult computational problem due to the large electron plasma frequency. A common approximation is to assume the electric field is computed in the ambipolar approximation in the bulk and to couple this to a sheath model at the boundaries. Unfortunately, this treatment is not appropriate when some surfaces are biased with respect to others and a net current is present within the plasma. This report develops some ideas on the application of quasi-static external electric fields to plasmas and the self-consistent treatment of boundary conditions at the surfaces. These constitute a generalization of Ohm`s law for a plasma body that entails solving for the internal fields within the plasma and the potential drop and currents through the sheaths surrounding the plasma.

This report describes the numerical procedure used to implement the Green`s function method for solving the Poisson equation in two-dimensional (r,z) cylindrical coordinates. The procedure can determine the solution to a problem with any or all of the applied voltage boundary conditions, dielectric media, floating (insulated) conducting media, dielectric surface charging, and volumetric space charge. The numerical solution is reasonably fast, and the dimension of the linear problem to be solved is that of the number of elements needed to represent the surfaces, not the whole computational volume. The method of solution is useful in the simulation of plasma particle motion in the vicinity of complex surface structures as found in microelectronics plasma processing applications. This report is a stand-alone supplement to the previous Sandia Technical Report SAND98-0537 presenting the two-dimensional Cartesian Poisson solver.

This report describes the numerical procedure used to implement the Green`s function method for solving the Poisson equation in two-dimensional Cartesian coordinates. The procedure can determine the solution to a problem with any or all of applied voltage boundary conditions, dielectric media, floating (insulated) conducting media, dielectric surface charging, periodic (reflective) boundary conditions, and volumetric space charge. The numerical solution is reasonably fast, and the dimension of the linear problem to be solved is that of the number of elements needed to represent the surfaces, not the whole computational volume. The method of solution is useful in the simulation of plasma particle motion in the vicinity of complex surface structures as found in microelectronics plasma processing applications. A FORTRAN implementation of this procedure is available from the author.

The authors have found that the conventional exponentiated split operator procedure is subject to difficulties in energy conservation when solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation for Coulombic systems. By rearranging the kinetic and potential energy terms in the temporal propagator of the finite difference equations, one can find a propagation algorithm for three dimensions that looks much like the Crank-Nicholson and alternating direction implicit methods for one- and two-space-dimensional partial differential equations. They report comparisons of this novel implicit split operator procedure with the conventional exponentiated split operator procedure on hydrogen atom solutions. The results look promising for a purely numerical approach to certain electron quantum mechanical problems.

A previously-developed approximation to the first integral of the Poisson equation enables one to obtain solutions for the voltage- current characteristics of a radio-frequency (rf) plasma sheath that are valid over the whole range of inertial response of the ions to an imposed rf voltage or current-specified conditions. The theory reproduced the time-dependent voltage-current characteristics of the two extreme cases corresponding to the Lieberman rf sheath theory and the Metze-Ernie-Oskam theory. In this paper the sheath model is connected to the plasma bulk description, and a prescription is given for the ion relaxation time constant, which determines the time-dependent ion impact energy on the electrode surface. It appears that this connected model should be applicable to those high density, low pressure plasmas in which the Debye length is a small fraction of the ion mean free path, which itself is a small fraction of the plasma dimension.

The authors analyze the problem of radiation trapping (imprisonment) by the method of Holstein. The process is described by an integrodifferential equation which shows that the effective radiative decay rate of the system depends on the size and the shape of the active medium. Holstein obtains a global decay rate for a particular geometry by assuming that the radiating excited species evolves into a steady state spatial mode. The authors derive a new approximation for the trapped decay which has a space dependent decay rate and is easy to implement in a detailed computer simulation of a plasma confined within an arbitrary geometry. They analyze the line shapes that are relevant to a near-atmospheric-pressure mixture of He and Xe. This line-shape analysis can be utilized in either the Holstein formulae or the space-dependent decay approximation.

By developing an approximation to the first integral of the Poisson equation, one can obtain solutions for the voltage-current characteristics of a radio-frequency (rf) plasma sheath that are valid over the whole range of inertial response of the ions to an imposed rf voltage or current-specified conditions. The theory adequately reproduces the time-dependent voltage-current characteristics of the two extreme cases corresponding to the Lieberman rf sheath theory and the Metze-Ernie-Oskam theory. Contained within the approximation is a time constant which controls the amount of ion response to the rf electric field. A prescription is given for determining this ion relaxation time constant, which also determines the time-dependent ion impact energy on the electrode surface.

The goal of this project is to gain an understanding of the fundamental mechanisms and processes occurring in low pressure, partially ionized plasmas and their interactions with materials. Emphasis is placed on: understanding the basic atomic and molecular physics that is occurring within the plasma bulk and sheath, understanding the relation of the collective plasma dynamics to the internal atomic processes, developing the ability to perform computer simulations of the plasmas as to both Collective dynamics and inclusion of atomic properties, and analyzing the response of the materials to the plasma and how the plasma might be tailored to obtain a given effect at the material surface.

I use a piece-wise linear approximation to the directed flux expressions for a flowing Maxwellian fluid to write down boundary conditions for the fluid description of a multicomponent plasma. These boundary conditions are sufficiently robust to treat particle reflection, surface reactions leading to secondary production, diffusion, and field-induced drift of charged species.