Effect of axial finiteness on electron heating in low-frequency inductively coupled plasmas

Total power absorption inside the plasma (by taking the thermal motion of the electrons into account) has been calculated using different inductively coupled plasma models. The comparison shows that in the low-frequency region the results of the semi-infinite plasma models are different from those of the finite-length plasma models. The semi-infinite plasma models show net reduction of heating in the low-frequency region, due to thermal motion of the electrons from inside the skin region to outside the skin region. The finite-length plasma models on the other hand (due to change in the skin depth owing to the boundary condition of E=0 at z=L, and reflection of electrons from the plasma boundary) show that the decrease in heating due to the motion of the electrons from inside the skin depth to outside the skin depth is recovered by the reflection of the electrons from the plasma boundary. Hence, it is concluded that the results of the semi-infinite plasma models presented by Tyshetskiy [Phys Rev. Lett. 90, 255002 (2003)] can be misleading (in the low-frequency region), since they overlooked the effect of axial finiteness of the plasma. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.