Electron impact collisions

Dissociation of the gases SiH4 and H2 by electron impact will create reactive species (radicals) and/or neutrals (Si2H6 and even higher-order silanes [195-198]). Atomic hydrogen is an important particle because it is formed in nearly all electron impact collisions, and the H-abstraction reaction [199, 200] of (di)silane is an important process, as is seen from sensitivity study. Dissociation of SiHa can create different SiH (with x = 0, 1,2, 3) radicals. Only silylene (SiH2) and... 

In order to calculate the rates for electron impact collisions and the electron transport coefficients (mobility He and diffusion coefficient De), the EEDF has to be known. This EEDF, f(r, v, t), specifies the number of electrons at position r with velocity v at time t. The evolution in space and time of the EEDF in the presence of an electric field is given by the Boltzmann equation [231] ... 

The method to calculate the rates of electron impact collisions as used in this model has been studied by Meijer et al. [230] and has also been used by others [221,234]. 

In a fluid model the correct calculation of the source terms of electron impact collisions (e.g. ionization) is important. These source terms depend on the EEDF. In the 2D model described here, the source terms as well as the electron transport coefficients are related to the average electron energy and the composition of the gas by first calculating the EEDF for a number of values of the electric field (by solving the Boltzmann equation in the two-term approximation) and constructing a lookup table. 

The power dissipated at two different frequencies has been calculated for all reactions and compared with the energy loss to the walls. It is shown that at 65 MHz the fraction of power lost to the boundary decreases by a large amount compared to the situation at 13.56 MHz [224]. In contrast, the power dissipated by electron impact collision increases from nearly 47% to more than 71%, of which vibrational excitation increases by a factor of 2, dissociation increases by 45%, and ionization stays approximately the same, in agreement with the product of the ionization probability per electron, the electron density, and the ion flux, as shown before. The vibrational excitation energy thresholds (0.11 and 0.27 eV) are much smaller than the dissociation (8.3 eV) and ionization (13 eV) ones, and the vibrational excitation cross sections are large too. The reaction rate of processes with a low energy threshold therefore increases more than those with a high threshold. 

Coincidence experiments explicitly require knowledge of the time correlation between two events. Consider the example of electron impact ionization of an atom, figure Bl.10.7. A single incident electron strikes a target atom or molecule and ejects an electron from it. The incident electron is deflected by the collision and is identified as the scattered electron. Since the scattered and ejected electrons arise from the same event, there is a time correlation... 

The probability for a particular electron collision process to occur is expressed in tenns of the corresponding electron-impact cross section n which is a function of the energy of the colliding electron. All inelastic electron collision processes have a minimum energy (tlireshold) below which the process cannot occur for reasons of energy conservation. In plasmas, the electrons are not mono-energetic, but have an energy or velocity distribution,/(v). In those cases, it is often convenient to define a rate coefficient /cfor each two-body collision process ... 

Thus two electrons exit the reaction zone, leaving a positively charged species (M ) called an ion (in this case, a molecular ion). Strictly, M" is a radical-cation. This electron/molecule interaction (or collision) was once called electron impact (also El), although no impact actually occurs. 

Molecules can interact with energetic electrons to give ions (electron ionization, El), which are electrically charged entities. The interaction used to be called electron impact (also El), although no actual collision occurs. 

Fig. 1. Pumping methods for lasers where is the pump light frequency and is the laser frequency, wavy lines represent radiationless transitions, and the dashed line collisions (a) optical pumping in three-level systems (b) optical pumping in four-level systems (c) pumping by electron impact and...

Ne is metastable neon produced by electron impact. Ne transfers its excitation to hydrogen molecules. The hydrogen molecules participating in these energy transfer collisions are produced in highly excited preionized states which ionize after a time lag sufficient to permit the initial neon and hydrogen collision partners to separate. The hydrogen ion is formed in the v = 5 or 6 quantum states and reacts with a second neon... 

In general, the substrate temperature will remain unchanged, while pressure, power, and gas flow rates have to be adjusted so that the plasma chemistry is not affected significantly. Grill [117] conceptualizes plasma processing as two consecutive processes the formation of reactive species, and the mass transport of these species to surfaces to be processed. If the dissociation of precursor molecules can be described by a single electron collision process, the electron impact reaction rates depend only on the ratio of electric field to pressure, E/p, because the electron temperature is determined mainly by this ratio. 

II. 51 Pa for H2, and 0.55 Pa for Si2H6. With these partial pressures, and the data on electron collisions as given in Table II, first the EEDF can be calculated, followed by the calculation of the electron transport coefficients and electron impact rates. From a comparison of a Maxwellian EEDF and the two-term Boltzmann... 

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