The plasma shower is an atmospheric pressure high density plasma source developed for material processing [1]. This source utilizes perforated metal electrodes that are coupled to radio frequency power at 13.56 MHz. A stationary argon gas flow guides the plasma between the perforated electrodes, hence resembling a shower head.
PLASIMO's Drift-Diffusion module coupled with the flow module is used to describe numerically the behaviour of the plasma species and to facilitate in-depth studies of the various aspects of the plasma shower.
The basic plasma characteristics such as electron temperature, electron density, the densities of relevant species are difficult to measure, since the plasma is mainly hidden in between the perforated plates. Numerical self-consistent model was constructed in order to get insights into the interplay of physico-chemical processes, the gas flow and the electric fields.
PLASIMO is capable of capturing accuratelly the plasma behaviour and give insight into the role of the different configuration aspects such as the sheath formation in between the plates, the field augmentation and flow acceleration in the shower holes and the flow recirculation between the plates.
References
[1] M. Moravej etal. (2004). Physics of high-pressure helium and argon radio-frequency plasmas Journal of Applied Physics, 96(12), 7011. [ read article ]
[2] M. Atanasova etal. (2012). Modelling of an RF plasma shower Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 45, 145202. [ read article ]