Browsing by Author "Gans, Timo"

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    Concepts, Capabilities, and Limitations of Global Models: A Review
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2016) Hurlbatt, Andrew; Gibson, Andrew Robert; Schröter, Sandra; Bredin, Jérôme; Foote, Alexander Paul Stuart; Grondein, Pascaline; O'Connell, Deborah; Gans, Timo
    For researchers wishing to generate an understanding of complex plasma systems, global models often present an attractive first step, mainly due to their ease of development and use. These volume averaged models are able to give descriptions of plasmas with complex chemical kinetics, and without the computationally intensive numerical methods required for spatially resolved models. This paper gives a tutorial on global modeling, including development and techniques, and provides a discussion on the issues and pitfalls that researchers should be aware of. Further discussion is provided in the form of two reviews on methods of extending global modeling techniques to encompass variations in either time or space.
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    Controlling plasma properties under differing degrees of electronegativity using odd harmonic dual frequency excitation
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2017) Gibson, Andrew R.; Gans, Timo
    The charged particle dynamics in low-pressure oxygen plasmas excited by odd harmonic dual frequency waveforms (low frequency of 13.56 MHz and high frequency of 40.68 MHz) are investigated using a one-dimensional numerical simulation in regimes of both low and high electronegativity. In the low electronegativity regime, the time and space averaged electron and negative ion densities are approximately equal and plasma sustainment is dominated by ionisation at the sheath expansion for all combinations of low and high frequency and the phase shift between them. In the high electronegativity regime, the negative ion density is a factor of 15-20 greater than the low electronegativity cases. In these cases, plasma sustainment is dominated by ionisation inside the bulk plasma and at the collapsing sheath edge when the contribution of the high frequency to the overall voltage waveform is low. As the high frequency component contribution to the waveform increases, sheath expansion ionisation begins to dominate. It is found that the control of the average voltage drop across the plasma sheath and the average ion flux to the powered electrode are similar in both regimes of electronegativity, despite the differing electron dynamics using the considered dual frequency approach. This offers potential for similar control of ion dynamics under a range of process conditions, independent of the electronegativity. This is in contrast to ion control offered by electrically asymmetric waveforms where the relationship between the ion flux and ion bombardment energy is dependent upon the electronegativity.
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    The effect of photoemission on nanosecond helium microdischarges at atmospheric pressure
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2018) Donkó, Zoltán; Hamaguchi, Satoshi; Gans, Timo
    Atmospheric-pressure microdischarges excited by nanosecond high-voltage pulses are investigated in helium-nitrogen mixtures by first-principles particle-based simulations, which include VUV resonance radiation transport via the tracing of photon trajectories. The VUV photons, of which the frequency redistribution in the emission processes is included in some detail, are found to modify the computed discharge characteristics remarkably, due to their ability to induce electron emission from the cathode surface. Electrons created this way enhance the plasma density, and a significant increase of the transient current pulse amplitude is observed. The simulations allow the computation of the density of helium atoms in the 21P resonant state, as well as the density of photons in the plasma and the line shape of the resonant VUV radiation reaching the electrodes. These indicate the presence of significant radiation trapping in the plasma and photon escape times longer than the duration of the excitation pulses are found.
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    Enhancing surface production of negative ions using nitrogen doped diamond in a deuterium plasma
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2020) Smith, Gregory J.; Ellis, James; Moussaoui, Roba; Pardanaud, Cédric; Martin, Céline; Achard, Jocelyn; Issaoui, Riadh; Gans, Timo; Dedrick, James P.; Cartry, Gilles
    The production of negative ions is of significant interest for applications including mass spectrometry, particle acceleration, material surface processing, and neutral beam injection for magnetic confinement fusion. Methods to improve the efficiency of the surface production of negative ions, without the use of low work function metals, are of interest for mitigating the complex engineering challenges these materials introduce. In this study we investigate the production of negative ions by doping diamond with nitrogen. Negatively biased (-20 V or-130 V), nitrogen doped micro-crystalline diamond films are introduced to a low pressure deuterium plasma (helicon source operated in capacitive mode, 2 Pa, 26 W) and negative ion energy distribution functions are measured via mass spectrometry with respect to the surface temperature (30 °C to 750 °C) and dopant concentration. The results suggest that nitrogen doping has little influence on the yield when the sample is biased at-130 V, but when a relatively small bias voltage of-20 V is applied the yield is increased by a factor of 2 above that of un-doped diamond when its temperature reaches 550 °C. The doping of diamond with nitrogen is a new method for controlling the surface production of negative ions, which continues to be of significant interest for a wide variety of practical applications. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
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    The formation of atomic oxygen and hydrogen in atmospheric pressure plasmas containing humidity: Picosecond two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence and numerical simulations
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2020) Schröter, Sandra; Bredin, Jérôme; Gibson, Andrew R.; West, Andrew; Dedrick, James P.; Wagenaars, Erik; Niemi, Kari; Gans, Timo; O’Connell, Deborah
    Atmospheric pressure plasmas are effective sources for reactive species, making them applicable for industrial and biomedical applications. We quantify ground-state densities of key species, atomic oxygen (O) and hydrogen (H), produced from admixtures of water vapour (up to 0.5%) to the helium feed gas in a radio-frequency-driven plasma at atmospheric pressure. Absolute density measurements, using two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence, require accurate effective excited state lifetimes. For atmospheric pressure plasmas, picosecond resolution is needed due to the rapid collisional de-excitation of excited states. These absolute O and H density measurements, at the nozzle of the plasma jet, are used to benchmark a plug-flow, 0D chemical kinetics model, for varying humidity content, to further investigate the main formation pathways of O and H. It is found that impurities can play a crucial role for the production of O at small molecular admixtures. Hence, for controllable reactive species production, purposely admixed molecules to the feed gas is recommended, as opposed to relying on ambient molecules. The controlled humidity content was also identified as an effective tailoring mechanism for the O/H ratio.
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    Foundations of plasma standards
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2023) Alves, Luís L.; Becker, Markus M.; van Dijk, Jan; Gans, Timo; Go, David B.; Stapelmann, Katharina; Tennyson, Jonathan; Turner, Miles M.; Kushner, Mark J.
    The field of low-temperature plasmas (LTPs) excels by virtue of its broad intellectual diversity, interdisciplinarity and range of applications. This great diversity also challenges researchers in communicating the outcomes of their investigations, as common practices and expectations for reporting vary widely in the many disciplines that either fall under the LTP umbrella or interact closely with LTP topics. These challenges encompass comparing measurements made in different laboratories, exchanging and sharing computer models, enabling reproducibility in experiments and computations using traceable and transparent methods and data, establishing metrics for reliability, and in translating fundamental findings to practice. In this paper, we address these challenges from the perspective of LTP standards for measurements, diagnostics, computations, reporting and plasma sources. This discussion on standards, or recommended best practices, and in some cases suggestions for standards or best practices, has the goal of improving communication, reproducibility and transparency within the LTP field and fields allied with LTPs. This discussion also acknowledges that standards and best practices, either recommended or at some point enforced, are ultimately a matter of judgment. These standards and recommended practices should not limit innovation nor prevent research breakthroughs from having real-time impact. Ultimately, the goal of our research community is to advance the entire LTP field and the many applications it touches through a shared set of expectations.
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    Influence of surface conditions on plasma dynamics and electron heating in a radio-frequency driven capacitively coupled oxygen plasma
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2015) Greb, Arthur; Robert Gibson, Andrew; Niemi, Kari; O’Connell, Deborah; Gans, Timo
    The impact of changing surface condition on plasma dynamics and electron heating is investigated by means of numerical simulations, based on a semi-kinetic fluid model approach, and compared with measurements of the nanosecond electron dynamics in the plasma-surface interface region using phase resolved optical emission spectroscopy (PROES). The simulations are conducted in a one-dimensional domain and account for a geometrical asymmetry comparable to the experimental setup of a radio-frequency driven capacitively coupled plasma in a gaseous electronics conference reference cell. A simple reaction scheme is considered, including electrons, O2+ positive ions, O- negative ions and O2(1Δ) metastable singlet delta oxygen (SDO) as individual species. The role of surface loss and effective lifetime of SDO is discussed. To simulate different surface conditions, the SDO surface loss probability and the secondary electron emission coefficient were varied in the model. It is found that a change in surface condition significantly influences the metastable concentration, electronegativity, spatial particle distributions and densities as well as the ionization and electron heating dynamics. The excitation dynamics obtained from simulations are compared with PROES measurements. This allows to determine experimentally relevant SDO surface loss probabilities and secondary electron emission coefficient values in-situ and is demonstrated for two different surface materials, namely aluminum and Teflon.
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    Numerical study of the influence of surface reaction probabilities on reactive species in an rf atmospheric pressure plasma containing humidity
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2017) Schröter, Sandra; Gibson, Andrew R.; Kushner, Mark J.; Gans, Timo; O’Connell, Deborah
    The quantification and control of reactive species (RS) in atmospheric pressure plasmas (APPs) is of great interest for their technological applications, in particular in biomedicine. Of key importance in simulating the densities of these species are fundamental data on their production and destruction. In particular, data concerning particle-surface reaction probabilities in APPs are scarce, with most of these probabilities measured in low-pressure systems. In this work, the role of surface reaction probabilities, γ, of reactive neutral species (H, O and OH) on neutral particle densities in a He-H2O radio-frequency micro APP jet (COST-APPJ) are investigated using a global model. It is found that the choice of γ, particularly for low-mass species having large diffusivities, such as H, can change computed species densities significantly. The importance of γ even at elevated pressures offers potential for tailoring the RS composition of atmospheric pressure microplasmas by choosing different wall materials or plasma geometries.
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    Power coupling mode transitions induced by tailored voltage waveforms in capacitive oxygen discharges
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2017) Derzsi, Aranka; Bruneau, Bastien; Gibson, Andrew Robert; Johnson, Erik; O’Connell, Deborah; Gans, Timo; Booth, Jean-Paul; Donkó, Zoltán
    Low-pressure capacitively coupled radio frequency discharges operated in O2 and driven by tailored voltage waveforms are investigated experimentally and by means of kinetic simulations. Pulse-type (peaks/valleys) and sawtooth-type voltage waveforms that consist of up to four consecutive harmonics of the fundamental frequency are used to study the amplitude asymmetry effect as well as the slope asymmetry effect at different fundamental frequencies (5, 10, and 15 MHz) and at different pressures (50-700 mTorr). Values of the DC self-bias determined experimentally and spatio-temporal excitation rates derived from phase resolved optical emission spectroscopy measurements are compared with particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collisions simulations. The spatio-temporal distributions of the excitation rate obtained from experiments are well reproduced by the simulations. Transitions of the discharge electron heating mode from the drift-ambipolar mode to the μ-mode are induced by changing the number of consecutive harmonics included in the driving voltage waveform or by changing the gas pressure. Changing the number of harmonics in the waveform has a strong effect on the electronegativity of the discharge, on the generation of the DC self-bias and on the control of ion properties at the electrodes, both for pulse-type, as well as sawtooth-type driving voltage waveforms The effect of the surface quenching rate of oxygen singlet delta metastable molecules on the spatio-temporal excitation patterns is also investigated.
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    The role of thermal energy accommodation and atomic recombination probabilities in low pressure oxygen plasmas
    (Bristol : IOP Publ., 2017) Gibson, Andrew Robert; Foucher, Mickaël; Marinov, Daniil; Chabert, Pascal; Gans, Timo; Kushner, Mark J.; Booth, Jean-Pau
    Surface interaction probabilities are critical parameters that determine the behaviour of low pressure plasmas and so are crucial input parameters for plasma simulations that play a key role in determining their accuracy. However, these parameters are difficult to estimate without in situ measurements. In this work, the role of two prominent surface interaction probabilities, the atomic oxygen recombination coefficient γ O and the thermal energy accommodation coefficient α E in determining the plasma properties of low pressure inductively coupled oxygen plasmas are investigated using two-dimensional fluid-kinetic simulations. These plasmas are the type used for semiconductor processing. It was found that α E plays a crucial role in determining the neutral gas temperature and neutral gas density. Through this dependency, the value of α E also determines a range of other plasma properties such as the atomic oxygen density, the plasma potential, the electron temperature, and ion bombardment energy and neutral-to-ion flux ratio at the wafer holder. The main role of γ O is in determining the atomic oxygen density and flux to the wafer holder along with the neutral-to-ion flux ratio. It was found that the plasma properties are most sensitive to each coefficient when the value of the coefficient is small causing the losses of atomic oxygen and thermal energy to be surface interaction limited rather than transport limited.