Particle-in-cell simulation of gas breakdown in microgaps

Abstract

Breakdown voltages of a capacitively coupled radio frequency argon discharge\nat 27 MHz are studied. We use a one-dimensional electrostatic PIC code to\ninvestigate the effect of changing the secondary emission properties of the\nelectrodes on the breakdown voltage, particularly at low pd values. Simulation\nresults are compared with the available experimental results and a satisfactory\nagreement is found.\n