Eur. Phys. J. D (2013) 67: 203
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2013-40244-9

Regular Article

Collisional-radiative model for non-Maxwellian inductively coupled argon plasmas using detailed fine-structure relativistic distorted-wave cross sections

¹ Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee 247667, India
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada

^a Present address: Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, Canada
^b e-mail: rajsrfph@iitr.ernet.in

Received: 16 April 2013
Received in final form: 20 July 2013
Published online: 1 October 2013

Abstract

Our recently developed collisional-radiative model which included fine-structure cross sections calculated with a fully relativistic distorted-wave method [R.K. Gangwar, L. Sharma, R. Srivastava, A.D. Stauffer, J. Appl. Phys. 111, 053307 (2012)] has been extended to study non-Maxwellian inductively coupled argon plasmas. We have added more processes to our earlier collisional-radiative model by further incorporating relativistic distorted-wave electron impact cross sections from the 3p⁵4sJ = 0, 2 metastable states, (1s₃, 1s₅ in Paschen’s notation) to the 3p⁵5p (3p_i) excited states. The population of various excited levels at different pressures in the range of 1–25 mTorr for an inductively coupled argon plasma have been calculated and compared with the recent optical absorption spectroscopy measurements as well as emission model results of Boffard et al. [Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 19, 065001 (2010)]. We have also calculated the intensities of two emission lines, 420.1 nm (3p₉ → 1s₅) and 419.8 nm (3p₅ → 1s₄) and compared with measured intensities reported by Boffard et al. [J. Phys. D 45, 045201 (2012)]. Our results are in good agreement with the measurements.