The parametric instability in the inductively coupled plasma driven by the ponderomotive current

Abstract

The stability theory of the skin layer plasma of the inductive discharge is developed for the case when the electron quiver velocity in RF wave is of the order of or is larger than the electron thermal velocity. This theory is grounded on the methodology of the oscillating modes, which accounts for the oscillation motion of the electron component relative to the unmovable ions in the spatially inhomogeneous RF field of the skin layer. The theory predicts the existence the instability of the parametric type in a skin layer with the growth rate comparable with frequency. This instability stems from the coupled action of two effects caused by the electron-ion relative motion in RF field: occurrence of harmonics of the perturbed potential and their coupling due to the ponderomotive current. The instability exists in the finite interval of the ponderomotive current velocity and is absent in the uniform boundless plasma.