PIC/MCC Simulation of Electron and Ion Currents to Spherical Langmuir Probe

Abstract

AbstractThe Particle In Cell/Monte Carlo Collisions (PIC/MCC) simulation was used for the calculation of electron and ion currents to a spherical Langmuir (electrostatic) probe. This simulation took into account the collisions of collected charged particles with neutral gas particles around the probe and it can calculate the probe currents at higher neutral gas pressures. The improvements of usual simulation techniques enabled to speed up the simulation and to calculate the probe current even for neutral gas pressures above 1 kPa. The simulations were carried out for two cases: i) probe with radius of 0.5 mm in non‐thermal plasma with high electron temperature, ii) probe with radius of 10 µm in afterglow plasma with low electron temperature. The influence of probe radius on electron probe current was also studied. The simulations showed that thick sheath limit of OML theory provides incorrect values of probe current for probes with radii larger than 200 µm at plasma parameters considered even at very low neutral gas pressures. The probe characteristics were calculated for probe with 0.5 mm radius for pressures up to 500 Pa and for probe with 10 μm radius for pressures up to 3 kPa. The influence of collisions on electron and ion probe current was demonstrated and the procedure for determination of electron and ion densities from the probe measurement at higher pressures was developed. The results from PIC/MCC simulations were compared with results from continuum theory. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)