Nonlinear transmission line (NTL) model study of electromagnetic effects in high-frequency asymmetrically driven capacitive discharges

In this work, we generalize a nonlinear transmission line (NTL) model introduced in a previous work [Liu et al. Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 30, 045017 (2021)] to achieve more comprehensive simulations. The improved NTL model allows a variable-sized (instead of a one grid cell) vacuum spacer between the powered and grounded electrodes and takes into account the (previously neglected) electron-neutral elastic collision frequency term in the plasma dielectric constant, and the radial variation of the plasma density. Using this model, we study the effects of the spatial and series resonances, associated with the (axially) z-antisymmetric and z-symmetric radially propagating surface wave modes, and the nonlinear harmonic excitations on the plasma uniformity. We conduct simulations in which we increase the driving frequency f from 30 to 120 MHz for an asymmetric capacitive argon discharge at a fixed pressure and electron power of pg=20 mTorr and Pe=40 W, respectively. The first antisymmetric mode resonance frequency fa1 occurs between 80 and 90 MHz, and the first symmetric mode resonance frequency fs1 occurs at about 100 MHz. The powered electrode sheath becomes smaller than the grounded electrode sheath for f≈fa1, and the source voltage reaches a minimum for f≈fs1. The radially varying electron power density shows a narrow center peak due to the finite mode wavelengths and the nonlinearly excited harmonics, which can be further enhanced by spatial or series resonances. A second peak appears above the vacuum spacer edge as f exceeds fs1 at 120 MHz because the shorter wavelengths at higher f allow secondary maxima of the surface waves to form within the reactor.