Prediction of stochastic behavior in differential charging of nanopatterned dielectric surfaces during plasma processing

Jason A. Kenney, Gyeong S. Hwang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate differential charging of high aspect ratio dielectric trenches under plasma exposure using a two-dimensional computational model. Rather than considering average fluxes, we track individual ion and electron trajectories within the electric field arising from surface charges on the trench, updating the potentials within the computational domain after each particle. Our results show that, as the trench width shrinks to 100 nm and below, the potentials within the trench oscillate over an ever-wider range. The stochastic charging behavior in turn leads to noticeable changes in the flux and energies of ions passing through the trench.

Original languageEnglish
Article number044307
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume101
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors greatly acknowledge the National Science Foundation (CTS-0650536) and the Welch Foundation (F-1535) for their financial support.

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