The low pressure Cl2/O2 discharge and the role of ClO

Abstract

A global (volume averaged) model is applied to a low pressure (1–100 mTorr) high density chlorine discharge that is diluted with oxygen. The influence of oxygen dilution on the particle densities and the electron temperature is explored. The electronegativity is found to increase strongly with increased pressure in a chlorine-rich mixture, whereas it is nearly pressure independent in an oxygen-rich mixture. The chlorine dissociation fraction increases with increased oxygen dilution, although the increase is neither pronounced nor sharp at low oxygen content. We explore the role of the ClO molecule in the discharge and confirm that the ClO molecule is mainly created through recombination of Cl and O atoms at the chamber wall, which in turn significantly increases the loss of Cl atoms in oxygen-rich mixtures. The most important loss process for ClO is electron impact dissociation in the plasma bulk. The molecular ion ClO+ is almost entirely created by charge transfer for oxygen dilution below 67%, while electron impact ionization becomes the dominant creation process for ClO+ at higher dilution.