STUDY OF CHARGE-TRANSPORT THROUGH THE SHEATH IN DC GLOW-DISCHARGE DURING PLASMA OXIDATION PROCESS

In this paper the transport of electrons and ions in plasma is studied by computer simulation. The main goal of the modelling was to establi sh the form of distributions of charged particles during plasma oxidat ion near the metal substrates immersed into plasma and to analyse thei r changes during the transport through both the presheath and the shea th for various biases. The complete analysis must take into account th e influence of both probe geometry and electric field in its vicinity, in the present stage of modelling the geometric factors were studied in detail. For collisionless and slightly collisional plasma the appro ximate solution was obtained in an analytical form, more general resul ts were found by particle simulation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Al l rights reserved.