Modelling of Voids in Complex Radio Frequency Plasmas

In this paper hydrodynamic and kinetic approaches to model low pressure capacitively coupled complex radio-frequency discharges are discussed and applied to discharges under microgravity. Experiments in the PKE-Nefedov reactor on board the International Space Station, as well as discharges in which gravity is compensated by means of thermophoresis are simulated with a 2-D cylindrically symmetric hydrodynamic model. Kinetic effects are studied with a 1-D Particle-In-Cell plus Monte Carlo model in which capture and scattering by dust grains is included. Simulations with this model address non-local effects and modulated discharges. (C) WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim