Modelling of electron kinetics in low-pressure inductively coupled plasmas

Summary form only given. Results are compared of two different methods of kinetic treatment of electrons in argon low-pressure Inductively-Coupled Plasma (ICP) sustained by an RF electric field from a planar coil. One approach involves a numerical "propagator" treatment of electron motion in five-dimensional phase space (two spatial and three velocity coordinates) using the so-called Convected Scheme. Another approach assumes small anisotropy of the electron distribution function (EDF) and employs the two term approximation in the Boltzmann equation. Both calculations are performed for given distributions of RF and static fields and incorporate the principal physical effects of ICP: electron heating by the inductive electric field and the influence of the static ambipolar field on electron kinetics under "non-local" conditions when the electrons perform many bounces in the potential well or change the direction of their motion in elastic collisions many times before suffering a substantial energy loss in collisions. Collision processes include elastic and inelastic electron-neutral collisions and electron-electron interactions.