Comparison of pressure dependence of electron energy distributions in oxygen capacitively and inductively coupled plasmas

Abstract

Electron energy distribution functions (EEDFs) were measured with increasing gas pressure in oxygen capacitively and inductively coupled plasmas. It was found that, in the capacitive discharge, abnormally low-energy electrons became highly populated and the EEDF evolved to a more distinct bi-Maxwellian distribution as the gas pressure was increased. This pressure dependence of the EEDF in the oxygen capacitive discharge is contrary to argon capacitively coupled plasma, where--at high gas pressure--low-energy electrons are significantly reduced due to collisional heating and the EEDF evolves to the Maxwellian. The highly populated low-energy electrons at high gas pressure, which was not observed in inductively coupled oxygen plasma, show that collisional heating is very inefficient in terms of the oxygen capacitive discharge. It appears that this inefficient collisional heating seems to be attributed to a low electric field strength at the center of the oxygen capacitive plasma.