Molecular dynamics plasma processing

David B. Graves and Cameron F. Abrams, Molecular Dynamics Simulations if Ion-Surface Interactions with Applications to Plasma Processing Christian M. Lastoskie and Keith E. Gubbins, Characterization of Porous Materials Using Molecular Theory and Simulation... 

As a future plan, we would like to explore a new field where atomic and nuclear physics are related in plasmas and systemize them. Extensions of our research to non-equilibrium, non-thermal and non-isotropic plasma, especially polarization spectroscopy are considered. We would like to develop quantum molecular dynamics for plasma-wall interactions, plasma radiation science, high-density plasma states, and atomic processes in high fields. These... 

MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS OF ION-SURFACE INTERACTIONS WITH APPLICATIONS TO PLASMA PROCESSING... 

The topic of this article is the use of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of positive ion-surface interactions for insights into the chemical and physical processes that occur at surfaces immersed in glow discharge plasmas. To understand the signihcance of this topic, it is necessary to have some background in the technology and its major industrial application (Lieberman and Lichtenberg, 1994). The term plasma in this context refers... 

Besides active research he very much enjoys teaching. In the Physical-Technical Institute of Moscow he taught (1966-1992) general courses on Molecular Dynamics and Chemical Kinetics. In the Technion (since 1992) he has taught and still teaches graduate courses on different subjects Advanced Quantum Chemistry, Theory of Molecular Collisions, Kinetic Processes in Gases and Plasma, Theory of Fluctuations, Density Matrix Formalisms in Chemical Physics etc. 

Reactive plasmas are generally characterized as plasmas in which component polyatomic molecules have an important role. Information and ideas, as well as experimental techniques in physical chemistry, particularly in reaction dynamics and kinetics studies, are greatly needed to control the essential features of atomic and molecular processes in reactive plasmas and thus to obtain desired products of reactive-plasma processing such as chemical-vapor deposition (CVD) and etching (Hatano, 1991). 

The fixed nuclear approximation is extremely useful, not only for the bound states, but also for the treatment of electronic scattering by molecules. For instance, stationary-state scattering theories within the fixed nuclear approximation have been extensively developed for molecular photoionization [18, 250, 336, 516] and electron scattering from polyatomic molecules [210, 418, 419]. These scattering phenomena are quite important in that they are widely foimd in nature as elementary processes and even in industrial applications using plasma processes. These scatterings may be referred to as stationary-state electron dynamics in fixed nuclei approximation. 

Transmission of extracellular signals to the cell interior is based on receptor-induced recruitment and assembly of proteins into signaling complexes at the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane. Protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions play a crucial role in the process in which molecular proximity in specially formed membrane subdomains provides the special and temporal constraints that are required for proper signaling. The phospholipid bilayer is not merely a passive hydrophobic medium for this assembly process, but is also a site where the lipid and the protein components are enriched by a dynamic process (see Chapter 5). 

This complicated situation is fundamentally different from small linear plasma devices, in which the MAR chain has been seen to lead to enhanced plasma recombination In a tokamak divertor, distinct from these divertor-simulation experiments, the molecular pressure is not an externally controlled parameter but must be established by the recycling plasma itself. Detailed and consistent modeling, verified by dedicated spectroscopy, shows that processes that lead to a reduction of the molecular density (such as MAR and MAD), therefore, can have entirely different effects on plasma dynamics in real divertors and in divertor simulators. 

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