Modeling of a chlorine high-density plasma submitted to a static magnetic field

Abstract

This paper extends the results of a recently developed one-dimensional model aiming to describe the characteristics of a magnetized chlorine high-density plasma. In this work, the dependence of the plasma characteristics on the magnetic field intensity is investigated. It is shown that the dissociation degree and the relative weight of the various charged species is strongly influenced by the magnetic field when the gas pressure is low enough. In contrast, at higher pressure, the plasma is essentially composed of negative ions, and molecular neutrals and ions, independently of the field intensity. It is further demonstrated that diffusion needs to be considered in order to correctly predict the plasma behavior.