CAREER: Fundamental Investigations of Atmospheric-Pressure Glow Discharges

这项工作的目的是提供一个严格的理解大气压辉光放电（APGD）。 这类新的等离子体可以在室温和大气压附近产生大量的活性化学物质，并有可能彻底改变基于等离子体的处理技术。 研究活动有以下组成部分：（1）用于预测APGD轴向结构的计算快速的一维物理模型;（2）用于研究整体流/等离子体动力学相互作用的二维模型;（3）使用均匀的、随时间变化的电子Boltzman解算器分析电子能量分布函数;（4）实验室规模的APGD实验，以协助模型验证和探索放电现象，包括放电模式的视觉表征，以建立作为放电几何形状和操作参数的函数的稳定性边界，以及放电的电气表征;（5）研究了一种新的基于APGD的硅氧化工艺，该工艺可能应用于SOI集成电路栅氧化层的形成。

The objective of this effort is to provide a rigorous understanding of atmospheric-pressure glow discharges (APGD). This new class of plasmas can produce large amounts of active chemical species near room temperature and atmospheric pressure and has potential to revolutionize plasma-based processing technologies. The research activities have the following components: (1) a computationally fast, one-dimensional physical model for prediction of APGD axial structure; (2) a two-dimensional model for investigating bulk flow/plasma dynamics interactions; (3) analysis of the electron energy distribution function using a homogeneous, time-dependent electron Boltzman solver; (4) a bench-scale APGD experiment to assist in model validation and to explore the discharge phenomena, including visual characterization of discharge modes to establish stability boundaries as a function of discharge geometry and operating parameters, and electrical characterization of the discharge; and (5) investigation of a novel APGD-based silicon oxidation process with potential application in ultrathin integrated circuit gate-oxide formation.