Syllabus (Plasmas and electrical discharges in gases)
WORKLOAD
45 hours (15 weeks)
COURSE CONTENT
Kinetic theory of gases, collisional processes, plasmas, DC and RF glow discharges, sputtering, etching and electrical arcs.
COURSE OUTLINE
1. Kinetic theory of gases
1.1. Boyle's Law
1.2. Gay-Lussac's Law
1.3. Avogadro's hypothesis
1.4. Law of partial pressures
1.5. The kinetic interpretation of pressure
1.6. Boltzmann-Maxwell's Molecular velocity distribution
1.7. The free path
2. Atomic structure
2.1. Bohr's atomic model
2.2. Energy levels
2.3. Limitations of Bohr's model
2.4. The wave-mechanical atomic structure
2.5. The electron spin
2.6. Electron configuration of the elements in the periodic table
2.7. Nomenclature of excited states
2.8. Metastable states
3. Ionization
3.1. Ionization and plasma conductivity
3.2. Production of charged particles
3.3. Ionization by collision
3.4. Photoionization
3.5. Ionization by X-ray
3.6. Ionization by nuclear radiation
3.7. Ionization by cosmic rays
3.8. Thermal ionization
4. Deionization
4.1. Definition
4.2. Diffusion
4.3. Recombination
4.4. Negative ions
5. Electron emission
5.1. Photoelectric emission
5.2. Thermionic emission
5.3. Field emission
6. Behavior of charged particles in a gas in electric fields of low E/p
6.1. Ion mobility
6.2. Forces between ions and molecules
6.3. Mobility theory
6.4. Experimental measurements of ion mobility
6.5. Ambipolar diffusion
6.6. Electron drift velocity
7. Behavior of charged particles in a gas in electric fields of high E/p
7.1. Coefficient of ionization by electron collision
7.2. The electron avalanche
7.3. The effect of the cathode
7.4. Ionization coefficient in alternating fields
7.5. Penning effect
8. The self-sustaining discharge
8.1. The overexponential carrier multiplication
8.2. Ionization by positive-ion collision
8.3. Cathode processes
8.4. Measurement of the second Townsend ionization coefficient
8.5. Paschen's Law
9. The glow
9.1. The cathode zone
9.2. Negative glow and Faraday dark space
9.3. The positive column
9.4. The anode region and other effects
10. Plasmas
10.1. The Debye length
10.2. Plasma oscillations
10.3. High-temperature plasmas
10.4. Plasma diagnostics
