Non-equilibrium Plasma Modeling – Aerothermal & Plasma Physics Laboratory

Subgroup 3 – Non-equilibrium Plasma Modeling Group

Non-equilibrium (low-temperature) plasma plays an important role in the modern science and technology, especially in semiconductor materials processing in surface cleaning, plasma deposition and plasma etching, to name a few. In the group of plasma simulation, it includes the development of highly parallel simulation codes of low-temperature plasmas and atmospheric-pressure plasmas. Some important highlights include: A parallelized plasma fluid modeling code (PPFM) using cell-centered finite-volume method for 1D/2D/2D-Axisymmetric has been under intensive development and is currently applied to simulate discharges such as RF low and atmospheric pressure plasmas, and AC plasmas (10-100kHz). A Maxwell equation solver are also under development which will be integrated with PPFM in the near future. Concurrently, plasma fluid modeling code also includes NS equation solver (PPFM-NS) to simulate realistic problem in which the distribution of neutral species (e.g., radicals) is important. We have developed Temporal Multi-scale Algorithm (TMA) in PPFM-NS code to efficiently and accurately couple the different system equations because of the wide disparity of characteristic time scales of light and heavy species, e.g., electron (~10-10 s) and neutral species (~10-3 s). A particle-in-cell Monte Carlo code (PIC-MCC) using unstructured grid was also developed to simulate gas discharges with very low pressure such as magnetron sputtering deposition process. In addition, we have been conducting extensive simulations in the area of atmospheric-pressure plasma jet (APPJ) driven by either RF or AC power supply and its applications in materials processing (surface cleaning, surface functional modification, and thin-film deposition) and plasma medicine (e.g., sterilization and enhanced wound healing).

Fluid Modeling

Capacitively Coupled Plasma (CCP)