Ion collision cross sections with transport and reaction coefficients in Ar, Cl2 and N2 and their mixtures for photonic crystal applications

Abstract

The ion swarm transport coefficients such as reduced mobility, diffusion coefficients and reaction rates of the following systems Ar+/Cl2, Ar+/N2, and have been determined from a Monte Carlo simulation using calculated elastic and experimentally estimated inelastic collision cross sections. The elastic momentum transfer cross sections have been determined from a semi-classical JWKB approximation based on a rigid core interaction potential model. The inelastic cross sections have been fitted using the measured reaction coefficients as for instance ion conversion reaction coefficients. Then, the cross section sets are fitted using either the measured reduced mobility when available in the literature or the zero-field mobility calculated from Satoh's relation. From the sets of elastic and inelastic collision cross sections thus obtained in Ar+/Cl2, Ar+/N2, and systems, the ion transport and reaction coefficients are then calculated in pure gases and also in binary and ternary mixtures involving Cl2, Ar and N2 over a wide range of reduced electric field. These ion data are very useful for modelling and simulation of non-equilibrium low pressure electrical discharges used more particularly for etching of the III–V compounds in the case of crystal photonic applications.