Parallel simulations of relaxation in electron transport in crossed electric and magnetic fields

Simulations of magnetized [or magnetically enhanced reactive ion etch (MERIE)] plasma sources are increasingly in demand with the advent of 300 mm technology in which plasma sources (like MERIE tools) are believed will play a prominent role. Resolving locality issues and understanding how electrons relax in electric and magnetic fields are important in the understanding of electron heating and the resolution of numerical issues associated with the simulations of these phenomena. In this paper describing Monte Carlo simulations of electron swarms, it is shown that electron swarms in crossed electric and magnetic fields have appreciable relaxation times related to their evolution to steady-state mean electron energy. These times are correlated to relaxation lengths that are on the order of 0.1 cm to 10 cut and increase with increasing reduced magnetic field. The times and distances are parameterized over the ranges of 10(0)-10(6) G/Torr and 28-1415 Td. Finally, parallelization through Java-based remote method invocation and distributed computing is presented as a successful approach for solving lame-particle-nurnber Monte Carlo simulations, the type of which are employed in this study.