Investigation of the microwave propagation in an ECR plasma using a self-consistent particle–wave model

In electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasmas for material processing, microwave propagation is very complicated due to the finite-sized, inhomogeneous and magnetized plasmas. According to the recent experimental research, the propagation of the extraordinary wave (X wave) was observed in a periphery of the plasma near the substrate. This wave may be important for material processing because the power deposition into the plasma can occur due to upper hybrid resonance (UHR) and contribute to the plasma uniformity near the substrate. In this paper, the results of a numerical simulation for an argon plasma using a self-consistent particle–wave model are presented and the microwave propagation is investigated. As a result, it was found numerically that the X wave propagated and deposited the power into the plasma in the case that a vacuum region exists in the plasma.