CAREER: Fundamental Investigations of Atmospheric-Pressure Glow Discharges

这项工作的目的是提供对大气压辉光放电(APGD)的严格理解。这种新型等离子体可以在室温和大气压附近产生大量活性化学物质，并有可能彻底改变基于等离子体的加工技术。研究活动包括以下部分：(1)用于预测APGD轴向结构的计算快速的一维物理模型；(2)用于研究体流动/等离子体动力学相互作用的二维模型；(3)使用均匀的、依赖于时间的电子Boltzman求解器分析电子能量分布函数；(4)用于辅助模型验证和探索放电现象的小试APGD实验，包括作为放电几何和操作参数的函数来建立稳定性边界的放电模式的可视化表征，以及放电的电学表征；以及(5)基于APGD的新型硅氧化工艺的研究，该工艺在超薄集成电路栅氧化物形成中具有潜在的应用前景。

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.