Investigation of electron heating in RF Capacitive discharges
A. Wu (UCB-Nuclear Engineering)

Using a fixed ion background to focus on the electron physics, an
investigation is conducted to examine the heating mechanisms of the
electrons using a PIC simulation.  The pressure is varied and after
running the simulations to steady-state, necessary data are gathered
in order to calculate the effective collision frequency.  This
effective collision frequency is then plotted against pressure to
determine the heating mechanism.  If ohmic heating dominates, the
collision frequency should be proportional to the pressure.  If
stochastic heating dominates, the collision frequency should be flat
versus pressure.  The heating mechanism that occurs is important in
how to control the heating of the plasma.