On the Mechanisms of Symmetry Breaking in Plasma-Chemical High-Frequency Low-Pressure Capacitive Reactors

High-frequency low pressure capacitive discharges are widely used for the implementation of plasma-chemical technologies. An increase in the size and frequency of the supporting HF field in modern devices has led to the need to take into account electromagnetic effects in the implementation of various discharge forms. In the microwave range of fields, in this case, the appearance of field instabilities is possible, accompanied by a violation of the plasma homogeneity. In this work, it is shown that two mechanisms of symmetry breaking are also possible in the low pressure capacitive discharges: those associated with the ionization-field instability and with a change in the sheath’s thickness.