MODELING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC-EXCITATION OF A COMPACT ECR ION FREE-RADICAL SOURCE

The electromagnetic excitation of a discharge inside a microwave plasm a source has been numerically modeled in the time domain. The source i s a cylindrical, single-mode microwave-excited cavity. The time-varyin g electromagnetic fields inside the resonant cavity, both inside and o utside the discharge region, are obtained by applying a finite-differe nce time-domain method to solve Maxwell's equations. The electromagnet ic properties of the discharge load are described using a conductivity model. The spatial electric field patterns, natural frequencies, stor ed energy, and quality factor of a plasma-loaded, microwave-resonant c avity are simulated. Additionally, the simulated results for a simplif ied plasma source structure are compared to a known analytical solutio n to verify the simulation technique.