Current-Voltage Scaling in Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Magnetron Sputtering

We explore the current-voltage (IV) relationship in 2D3V particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of direct-current magnetron sputtering (DCMS). DCMS is widely used to sputter-coat thin films, and the IV scaling is essential for device engineering and operation. PIC simulations provide a fully-kinetic method to explore this scaling along with other critical plasma parameters. Due to the multiscale nature of DCMS, traditional PIC simulations are computationally slow. To speed up simulations, we explore the use of enhanced PIC techniques such as speed-limited particle-in-cell (SLPIC), an algorithm that enables larger timesteps [1]. We have shown that SLPIC can quickly simulate electric discharge, collisions, and wall interactions, which are relevant to DCMS [2]. In this work, we leverage enhanced PIC techniques and parallel computing to populate an IV curve and compare our plot with experimental data.