Self-consistent microwave field and plasma discharge simulations for a moderate pressure hydrogen discharge reactor

Summary form only given. A self-consistent two dimensional model of the electromagnetic field and the plasma in a hydrogen discharge system has been developed and tested in comparison to experimental measurements. The reactor studied is a 25 cm diameter resonant cavity structure operating at 2.45 GHz with a silica belljar of 10 cm diameter and 17 cm height contained within the microwave cavity. The inside of the belljar where the discharge occurs contains a substrate holder of 6 cm diameter that is used to hold substrates for diamond deposition. The electromagnetic field model solves for the microwave fields using a FDTD (finite difference time domain) solution of Maxwell's equations. The plasma model is a three temperature (gas, molecular vibration, and electron) and nine species (H/sub 2/, H, H(n=2), H(n=3), H/sup +/, H/sub 2//sup +/, H/sub 3//sup +/, H/sup -/, electron) model which accounts for non-Boltzmann electron distribution function and has 35 reactions. Simulated characteristics of the reactor in two dimensions include gas temperature, electron temperature, electron density, atomic hydrogen molar fraction, microwave power absorption, and microwave fields.