We demonstrate a self-consistent and complete description of electron dynamics in a typical electropositive radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) argon discharge with a dielectric target. The electron dynamics, including the electron power absorption dynamics in one radio frequency (RF) period, is studied via a fully kinetic 2d3v particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision (PIC/MCC) electrostatic simulation. The interplay between the fundamental plasma parameters is analyzed through their spatiotemporal dynamics. Due to the influence of magnetic trap on the electron transport, a spatially dependent charging that perturbs the electric potential is observed on the dielectric target surface, resulting in a spatially dependent ion energy distribution along the target surface. The E × B drift-to-discharge current ratio is in approximate agreement with Bohm diffusion. The electron power absorption can be primarily decoupled into the positive Ohmic power absorption in the bulk plasma region and the negative pressure-induced power absorption near the target surface. Ohmic power absorption is the dominant electron power absorption mechanism, mostly contributed by the azimuthal electron current. The power absorption due to electron inertial effects is negligible on time-average. Both the maximum power absorption and dissipation of electrons appear in the bulk plasma region during the second half of the RF period, implying a strong electron trapping in magnetron discharges. The contribution of secondary electrons is negligible under typical RFMS discharge conditions.

This work demonstrates the presence of a small number of high-energy ballistic electrons (HEBEs) that originate from secondary electrons in low-pressure radio-frequency (rf) plasmas. The kinetic behaviors of the HEBEs are illustrated through electron energy probability functions from the fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations, showing two wavy high-energy tails and two bifurcations during one rf cycle. Test-particle simulations and a semi-analytical method associated with nonlocal electron kinetics are performed to characterize the HEBE trajectories, which reveal the ballistic nature of the HEBEs and their typical bouncing features between the rf sheaths. Parameter dependence of the HEBEs on the discharge conditions (e.g., gas pressure, gap distance, and rf frequency) are identified, which is relevant to the plasma collisionality. With a pronounced presence of HEBEs, the overall impacts of the secondary electron emission on discharge parameters, such as electron power absorption and ionization rate, are also illustrated.

We verify the similarity law (SL) and show a violation of frequency scaling (f-scaling) in low-pressure capacitive radio frequency (rf) plasmas via fully kinetic particle-in-cell simulations. The SL scaling relations for electron density and electron power absorption are first confirmed in similar rf discharges. Based on these results, with only the driving frequency varied, the f-scaling for electron density is also validated, showing almost the same trend as the SL scaling, across most of the frequency regime. However, violations of the f-scaling are observed at lower frequencies, which are found to be relevant to the electron heating mode transition from stochastic to Ohmic heating. Electron kinetic invariance is illustrated for the SL and f-scaling being valid, respectively, whereas the electron kinetic variation is observed when the f-scaling is violated.

This letter reports on electrochemical and optical characteristics of flexible, transparent microelectrodes, which consist of thin poly-(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) spun onto indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrodes for potential applications in biomedical optoelectronic devices. Although PEDOT:PSS/ITO combined films have been extensively investigated for applications in optical devices, such as solar cells and LEDs, PEDOT:PSS/ITO films for use in electrophysiological recording have not been well characterized yet. In this letter, PEDOT:PSS-coated ITO microelectrodes with various diameters of 10, 37, 50, and 80 μm were microfabricated and characterized, and their properties were compared with plain ITO microelectrodes. Experimental results demonstrate that PEDOT:PSS-coated ITO electrodes exhibit decreased electrochemical impedance, well-performed stability in saline, and increased charge storage capacity while preserving excellent optical transparency and mechanical flexibility. Equivalent circuit models were fitted to the experimental results to analytically extract interface capacitance, charge transfer resistance, and solution resistance at the electrode-electrolyte interface.

Similarity transformations are essential for correlating discharges at different scales, which are mostly utilized with local field or local energy approximations. In this work, we report the fully kinetic results from particle-in-cell/Monte Carlo collision simulations that unambiguously demonstrate the similarity of radio frequency (rf) discharges in nonlocal regimes where the electron energy relaxation length is much larger than the gap dimension. It is found that at a constant rf voltage amplitude, discharges will be similar if the gas pressure, inverse of gap distance, and rf driving frequency are all changed by the same scaling factor. The scaling relations of fundamental parameters are illustrated for rf discharges in the alpha-mode with secondary electron emission ignored, and the temporal electron kinetics are shown to have invariance in similar discharges. The results explicitly validate the scaling laws in nonlocal kinetic regimes, indicating promising application potentials of the similarity transformations across a wide range of kinetic regimes.