SELF-CONSISTENT SIMULATION OF A PLANAR ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON-WAVE-RESONANCE DISCHARGE

A discharge heated inductively by resonant absorption of electron cycl otron waves discharge is modeled in a planar geometry. The simulation algorithm is based on a kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC/MC) simulation o f the plasma properties; the electromagnetic field is calculated macro scopically using the Appleton-Hartree theory for the dielectric tenser . The results are checked against a simplified analytical theory and e xperimental data by B. Pfeiffer [J. Appl. Phys. 37, 1624,1628 (1966)] for a 15 mTorr argon discharge. As a result, we show that an inhomogen eous density profile in the discharge strongly affects the electromagn etic fields in the plasma. Power deposition is calculated both in and outside of the resonance. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.