Abstract
A self-consistent fluid model developed for simulations of micro-gravity dusty plasma experiments has for the first time been used to model asymmetric dusty plasma experiments in a modified Gaseous Electronics Conference (GEC) reference cell with gravity. The numerical results are directly compared with experimental data and the experimentally determined dependence of global discharge parameters on the applied driving potential and neutral gas pressure is found to be well matched by the model. The local profiles important for dust particle transport are studied and compared with experimentally determined profiles. The radial forces in the midplane are presented for the different discharge settings. The differences between the results obtained in the modified GEC cell and the results first reported for the original GEC reference cell are pointed out.
Highlights
We used a 2D fluid model to simulate a modified GEC reference cell used for dusty plasma experiments
The model geometry is in excellent agreement with the modified geometry, showing that only a small fraction of the grounded surface area interacts with the plasma
The local dust charge, plasma densities, plasma potential and radial force profiles were obtained from the data and the model
Summary
The GEC reference cell was originally designed to allow fair comparison between plasma processing studies performed in different laboratories [1, 2]. The motivation for this study is to examine dusty plasma environments in a modified GEC cell with a self-consistent dusty plasma model for the first time, to compare results from the model to measurements of plasma properties in the experiment, rather than from the literature alone, and determine the effect of the modifications to the GEC cell on the local and global discharge characteristics. The latter depend on the global particle and power balance of the discharge, which can be observed through the DC bias on the powered electrode and the power absorbed in the plasma.
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